Cinerama Dome set to reopen in 2028 with Alamo Drafthouse as operator
Sony Pictures Entertainment said Alamo Drafthouse will run the restored Hollywood theater and its adjoining 14-screen complex.
By Daniel Okafor · Business Editor
3 min read
Hollywood’s Cinerama Dome is slated to return after a pandemic-era shutdown that left one of Los Angeles’ best-known movie houses dark. Sony Pictures Entertainment said Alamo Drafthouse Cinema will operate the restored dome and the neighboring 14-screen complex, with a reopening planned for early 2028.
Sony, which owns Alamo Drafthouse, said the plan covers the 86-foot-wide curved theater as well as the former ArcLight Cinemas complex next door. The company said the project will preserve the dome’s geodesic exterior and its large Cinerama sign, both fixtures of the site since it opened in 1963.
A Hollywood theater built for spectacle
The Cinerama Dome was commissioned by Pacific Theatres founder William R. Forman as a high-end movie venue built around a custom curved screen and a three-projector presentation system, according to the Associated Press. When Pacific Theatres closed the venue in April 2021, it said the COVID-19 pandemic had forced the shutdown.
At the time of that closure, the Dome was one of three theaters in the world still able to use the original three-projector Cinerama format, according to the Associated Press. The theater also supports 70 mm projection, a format that has drawn renewed attention around Christopher Nolan’s “The Odyssey,” the AP reported.
Sony Pictures Entertainment Chairman and CEO Ravi Ahuja said the Cinerama Dome carries unusual cultural weight for moviegoers and the film business. Alamo Drafthouse CEO Michael Kustermann said the site will become the chain’s West Coast flagship theater.
Dining plans will differ by screen
Alamo Drafthouse is known for serving food and drinks during screenings, but Sony said the Dome itself will not use that model. The adjacent 14 theaters, formerly run by ArcLight Cinemas before that chain also shut down in 2021, will offer in-theater dining.
Fortune reported that Alamo has recently faced criticism over a move toward in-seat ordering that requires customers to use personal phones. Sony’s announcement did not describe how ordering will work at the reopened Hollywood complex.
Michael O’Leary, president and CEO of the theater trade group Cinema United, welcomed the reopening plan. He said in a statement that the Dome has been important to movie fans and the film community for more than six decades, and said the timing fits a year in which audiences have shown interest in seeing films on big screens.
The reopening would bring back a venue long associated with large-format exhibition at a time when theater owners and studios are trying to emphasize experiences viewers cannot get at home. Sony and Alamo’s plan also revives a prominent piece of the former ArcLight Hollywood site, which has remained closely watched by film fans since its 2021 closure.
This story draws on original reporting from Fortune.