If you searched for movies near me in central Los Angeles at any point in the last twenty years, the answer was usually the Pacific Theatres at The Grove. It is worth knowing that the theatre in that building is no longer Pacific, has not been since 2021, and that the change was not cosmetic.
Karpo can check what is actually screening at The Grove tonight, which of the premium houses it is in, and whether a different theatre nearby has the same film for less.
What actually happened to Pacific
Pacific Theatres opened at The Grove on 15 March 2002 and it became one of the highest-grossing cinemas in the country, helped enormously by sitting inside a shopping centre with a trolley running down the middle of it. It closed on 17 March 2020 along with everything else.
On 13 April 2021 the parent company announced that the closure of its Pacific and ArcLight theatres would be permanent. That announcement took the Cinerama Dome and this building out at the same time, and for a few months central Los Angeles simply did not have its default cinema.
AMC took over the lease and reopened the building as AMC The Grove 14 on 13 August 2021. The address did not change, the fourteen screens did not change, and the location inside the shopping centre did not change. The operator, the loyalty programme and the pricing structure did.
What AMC added that Pacific never had
This is the part that matters if you are choosing where to see something. The building now runs IMAX at AMC, Dolby Cinema at AMC and PRIME at AMC — three distinct premium formats under one roof, in a part of the city that previously had none of them at this address.
Dolby Cinema is the one worth planning around. It combines dual laser projection with a considerably better sound system and reclining seats set on risers, and for a film with any real sound design it is a different experience from a standard auditorium. IMAX at AMC is the digital IMAX rather than the 70mm film format, which is worth understanding before you pay the premium for it.
The parking situation, honestly
The Grove has a multi-level garage attached to the shopping centre and the cinema validates at five dollars for four hours. Bring the ticket to the box office or guest services and get it stamped before you leave — the validation is not automatic and the difference between validated and unvalidated on a Saturday night is substantial.
Four hours covers a film and a reasonable amount of wandering. It does not cover a film plus a long dinner, so if you are making an evening of it, budget for going over or park elsewhere. The neighbourhood streets around Fairfax and Third have their own restrictions and are enforced properly.
When to go and when not to
The Grove is a shopping centre first. That means Friday and Saturday evenings are busy in a way that has nothing to do with the film — the walkways are full, the garage queues, and the twenty minutes you did not budget for disappear at the entrance rather than at the box office.
Weekday evenings are a completely different building. A Tuesday screening in Dolby at this location is among the better ways to see a film in Los Angeles, and the same seat on a Saturday is a worse experience for the same money. If the film is not opening weekend, wait for the Tuesday.
How it sits against the rest of the city
Los Angeles has an unusually good cinema landscape and The Grove is not the top of it. The Chinese Theatre has the IMAX laser house and the history, the Village in Westwood has the single enormous screen, and the repertory theatres run film prints that no multiplex touches.
What The Grove has is the combination — three premium formats, fourteen screens so something is always starting soon, validated parking, and a location that is genuinely central. For a normal Tuesday when you want to see a specific film without planning your evening around it, that combination is hard to beat.
Eating around it without ruining the timing
The advantage of a cinema inside a shopping centre is that the food problem is solved without a second drive, and the Original Farmers Market next door is genuinely the better half of that equation. It has been on the corner of Third and Fairfax since 1934 and the stalls run to a different rhythm than the restaurants inside The Grove itself.
The trap is timing. The market stalls close earlier than the restaurants and considerably earlier than the last screening, so a late film means eating first or not at all. For a seven o'clock showing you have room to do it properly; for a ten o'clock one, plan on the restaurants rather than the market, or eat somewhere on Beverly before you park.
Practical notes
Check the format on the ticket rather than assuming. A film at this address might be in Dolby, IMAX, PRIME or a standard house, and the listings do distinguish them but it is easy to buy the wrong one when three showings start within half an hour of each other.
Reserved seating means the queue does not determine where you sit, so arriving early buys you nothing except trailers. Arrive early enough for the garage and no earlier.
- AMC The Grove 14, 189 The Grove Drive, Los Angeles, CA 90036
- Formats: IMAX at AMC, Dolby Cinema at AMC and PRIME at AMC, plus standard houses
- Fourteen screens; reserved seating, so arrive for the garage rather than for the queue
- Parking: attached multi-level garage, validated at five dollars for four hours at the box office or guest services
- History: Pacific Theatres opened here in March 2002, closed permanently in April 2021; AMC reopened the building in August 2021
- Best time: weekday evenings, when the shopping centre itself is quiet
- IMAX at AMC here is digital IMAX rather than 70mm film
Tags: #MoviesNearMe #LosAngeles #TheGrove #AMCTheGrove #DolbyCinema #IMAX #LAMovies #MovieNight #Fairfax #WatchParties #PacificTheatres #FarmersMarket #WeekendPlans
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Ask Karpo first
Ask Karpo what is playing at The Grove tonight, which auditorium format each showing is in, and whether the same film is running in Dolby or IMAX somewhere closer to you.
