The Cinerama Dome
The Cinerama Dome on Sunset Blvd. in Hollywood, is one of the premier movie theaters in the world. The Cinerama Dome is for many the best place in Los Angeles to see a wide screen movie for anyone, but especially kids and families.
This classic movie theater was built to house the Cinerama wide screen movie process and the geodesic dome architecture by R. Buckminster Fuller was considered a radical design. Located near Vine St. and Sunset Blvd. was built in 1963 with designs by Welton Becket and Associates.
Pacific Theaters had committed to United Artist Studios that the theater would be completed for the premiere of the first motion picture shot in 70mm, single strip Cinerama process for Stanley Kramer's "It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World". The finished theater has the largest contoured motion picture screen in the world, spanning 32 feet high and 86 feet wide.
Cinerama ushered in the wide screen motion picture with its three-projector process in the 1950s. The Cinerama Dome built in the 1960s, never used the three-protector process. The Cinerama Dome was designed as a prototype to be used as a showcase for the Cinerama process, but only a few of these theaters were ever built.
The space-age theater was renovated in 2000 and reopened as part of Pacific Theaters' Arclight Hollywood complex. Improvements include better acoustics and audio sound system; along with digital projectors and more recently, laser projection system. The Cinerama Dome has even been fitted with the original three-projector system to screen original Cinerama productions.
With Los Angeles the epicenter of the film industry, for cinema fans the iconic miss-century Cinerama Done is considered the best spot for first run movie premieres and film festivals in Southern California. The theater was designated a Historic and Cultural Monument by the City of Los Angeles in 1998.
The Cinerama Dome continues to dazzle audiences. It is a symbol of Los Angeles and the motion picture business. It is a rare example and icon of modern architecture and a landmark movie palace.
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The only think that can save cinema is to have exclusive 5 year releases with 35mm and 70mm.
This is superior than imax but so complex
I was fortunate enough to go here and experience A film and the theater. It’s the only Cinerama I have been to and it was well worth the visit. The very next day LA was shut down for the pandemic. Glad to see it is going to reopen soon after Archlight lost it.
@destinationtemptation6741
Жыл бұрын
Not sure what will happen to the Dome since it was shutdown. Haven't heard anything about opening. My hope is that one of the streamers will buy it to premiere their films. Something similar to Netflix investing in the Egyptian Theater on Hollywood Blvd.
This cinema looked amazing in the Once upon a time in hollywood film so glad to see it still running today
@CVerse
Жыл бұрын
It’s still running? I always see the entrance is under construction whenever I pass by it
@DogWick
Жыл бұрын
@@CVerse i dont live in the US so i could be wrong
@tazinboor3913
Жыл бұрын
@@DogWick I read that they closed it after Pacific Theatres went bankrupt, but there’s plans on reopening it under the name, Cinerama Hollywood.
@destinationtemptation6741
Жыл бұрын
@@tazinboor3913 There are rumors that the Dome will reopen but still no announced plans to reopen soon. Some of the streamers like Netflix or HBO have talked about using the Dome to Premier their original motion picture before streaming.
@tazinboor3913
Жыл бұрын
@@destinationtemptation6741 That is definitely a movie palace I want to see a movie in, right up there with The El Capitan Theatre, and Grauman’s Chinese Theatre.
We had one of the best Cinerama house in Denver, the Cooper Theater. Saw "How The West Was Won" there as a kid and the first three "Star Wars" there as well as "2001 A Space Odyssey." I liked it even better than the Hollywood Cinerama Dome, but today it's gone, replaced by a car dealership.
@raulvz
Жыл бұрын
Must be increíble experience to watch "How the west was wom" in a real cinerama cinema, what a Lucky man 😀
@billolsen4360
Жыл бұрын
@@raulvz It was! Mom gave me a Dramamine tablet so I wouldn't get motion sickness in HTWWW, lol.
@raulvz
Жыл бұрын
@@billolsen4360 Lol
@RobertR3750
4 ай бұрын
I loved the Cooper. Saw Star Wars, Empire Strikes Back, Jaws, and Alien there.
Stanley Kramer would be proud. Thanks for the restoration and more so the dedication. 👍
@destinationtemptation6741
2 жыл бұрын
Looking to do an update once the Dome reopens!
Ojalá vuelva esa pantalla gigante ,es buenísimo, te atrapa la imagen y más si es una buena película de acción, de aventuras ,películas epicas, sería grandioso
MalB Great article. Thank You.Can't believe JN's comment that it's about to close. I'm nearly 80 and first saw Cinerama in a huge tent here in England in the 50's. I've collected most of the "Smilebox" transfers.
Saw the original Rollerball! Premier of 1941! So Kool! Thanks!
@destinationtemptation6741
Жыл бұрын
I was at the first screening of 1941 at the Dome and no one was there. That's how I knew that it was going to be a bomb.
Great stuff!
Magnifique! Du vrai cinéma.
Saw Ice Station Zebra there in ‘68.
@destinationtemptation6741
5 ай бұрын
That would have been a great movie to see at the Dome. I saw "Close Encounters of the Third Kind and Apocalyptic Now" at the Dome, some of the best movie experiences I ever had!
I can imagine Cinerama coming back today with digital camera and drone technology. I saw a short video of a drone carrying three digital cameras arranged in a similar fashion to the three-camera Cinerama setup. It also had tracking technology to stabilize the cameras.
@Art-is-craft
12 күн бұрын
Digital is not as good as film.
@destinationtemptation6741
Күн бұрын
Can never understand why they don't shoot on film and then go digital for post production. Digital Cinematographers work hard to give their digital photography the look of film.
@destinationtemptation6741
Күн бұрын
It's not so much the technology, but how you use the technology to tell the story. Otherwise its just all GoPro footage real big.
@Art-is-craft
Күн бұрын
@@destinationtemptation6741 The bottle neck is digital projection it is limited to 4k but film is at minimum 8k. It does not matter what it is shot on or how it is post developed.
Great! Loved the video and subscribed.
thank you
My old boss John Sittig!
@destinationtemptation6741
Жыл бұрын
John is a great guy.
0:47 "Cinerama was the first of the modern day wide-screen film processes." Abel Gance would like a word...
Wonder what will happen to it now
Correction: SuperPanavision 70 does/did not have the same aspect ratio as 3-Strip Cinerama.
@Art-is-craft
12 күн бұрын
There is a 70mm that creates a curved image that they flattens out on the curve screen as is very near to the three projector version. As they both have the same aspect ratio.
So so so SO when is Andy Summers going to come on this video wishing for this historic sight to be demolished making my loose all my respect for him each minute he come on a video about this dome and says that.
In 1952 This is CINERAMA was playing in only one Theater that being in New York City not 30 and it is Stereophonic Sound not Stereoscopic !
@destinationtemptation6741
2 жыл бұрын
Thanks for flagging the error. Planing on doing an update once the Dome reopens.
@vinalboy
2 жыл бұрын
It also played using the three projector process at The Boyd Theatre in Philadelphia.
@Edubarca46
9 ай бұрын
Also here in Bogotá, Colombia but much later, in 1964 in a special Cinerama house built for the process. Almost all Cinerama films both single and three projectors movies ever made were shown on this theatre.
🙂
Before IMAX wiped the floor with Cinerama.
@destinationtemptation6741
Жыл бұрын
It was actually Ultra Panavision 70mm with a similar 2.76 aspect ratio that replaced the three camera process. They used special lenses to project 70 mm prints onto the curved screens. The Dome oped in 1963 with "Its A Mad, Mad, Mad, World" using a 70mm print after Cinerama discontinued the 3 camera process. Thanks for watching!
@StinkFingerr
5 ай бұрын
They really didn't Coincide.
@Art-is-craft
12 күн бұрын
@@destinationtemptation6741 As far as I know here was a process of shooting on a spherical lens 70mm film and then creating a specially distorted film to be played on a standard spherical lens projector that would fit the curved screen.
conclusion? digital format today is a disaster ,35mm and 70mm is the best format for theaters,digital is low resolution ,digital is only a big tv for home,we living today hollywood decadence.
@Art-is-craft
12 күн бұрын
Digital theatres can still have their place but modern film would wipe the floor with it.