Los Angeles has more cinemas of more different kinds than any American city, and they are distributed across four hundred and seventy square miles rather than concentrated anywhere. The question is almost never which is the best cinema in Los Angeles. It is which of the good ones is on your side of the county tonight, and the answer is different in every neighbourhood.
The right cinema tonight is the good one you can actually reach at this hour. Ask Karpo what is near you and what is on.
Hollywood and the central corridor
Hollywood has the highest concentration of historic cinemas still operating. The Egyptian Theatre on Hollywood Boulevard opened in 1922 and hosted what is generally regarded as the first Hollywood premiere; the Chinese Theatre opened in 1927 and is still one of the largest and most recognisable auditoriums in the country. The American Cinematheque programmes repertory seasons at the Egyptian, which is the main reason to go rather than the tourist traffic outside.
Just east, Los Feliz has the Vista — a 1923 single-screen theatre — and the Los Feliz 3, both walkable from a dense strip of restaurants and bars. The New Beverly on Beverly Boulevard programmes 35mm double bills nightly and is the purest repertory experience in the city.
Downtown
Broadway between Third and Ninth holds the largest surviving concentration of movie palaces in the world, a dozen theatres built between the 1910s and the 1930s. Most no longer operate as daily cinemas, but several host screenings and events, and the buildings themselves — the Orpheum, the Los Angeles Theatre, the United Artists — are extraordinary. Any screening in one of them is worth going to on the strength of the room alone.
Downtown also has modern multiplexes and the Academy Museum on the edge of the Miracle Mile, which programmes seriously and has one of the best-equipped auditoriums in the county. Parking downtown is garage-only and the venues mostly offer validation.
The Westside
Santa Monica has the Aero on Montana Avenue, the American Cinematheque's second venue, which is the best repertory room on the Westside and is walkable from a good stretch of restaurants. Westwood, next to UCLA, has the historic Village and Bruin theatres facing each other across the street, both of which are large single-screen rooms of a kind that barely exist anymore.
Culver City has modern multiplexes with easy parking and a walkable downtown, which makes it the most frictionless film evening on that side of the city. Venice and Marina del Rey have less, and the Palisades and Malibu have very little — on the far Westside, the drive is part of the plan.
The Valley and the east
The San Fernando Valley has the county's most comfortable ordinary cinemas: large modern multiplexes with recliners, free parking and no queue, in Sherman Oaks, Burbank, North Hollywood and Woodland Hills. If the point is to see a new release comfortably rather than to have an occasion, the Valley is where to do it and it is meaningfully cheaper than the Westside.
East of downtown, Highland Park, Eagle Rock and Pasadena have a mix of restored neighbourhood theatres and modern rooms. Pasadena in particular has a good cluster within walking distance of Old Town's restaurants. The San Gabriel Valley multiplexes programme a substantial slate of Chinese-language releases, which is one of the more interesting things about cinema in Los Angeles and almost entirely unknown outside the area.
The specialist rooms
Beyond the neighbourhood picture, Los Angeles has a handful of venues that exist for a specific purpose and are worth travelling for when they are showing something. The Academy Museum programmes with archival access most cinemas do not have. The UCLA Film and Television Archive screens restorations from one of the largest collections in the country. The Nuart in West Los Angeles has run a weekly midnight tradition for decades. And the large-format houses in Hollywood and the Valley are among the best-equipped rooms in the United States. None of these are the closest cinema to anyone, and all of them justify the drive occasionally.
Choosing between them
The practical filter is the same as for restaurants in this city: direction first, then venue. Decide whether the evening is going east, west or central, and pick within that. A twenty-minute drive to a good room is a fine evening and a fifty-minute drive to a slightly better one is not, particularly on a weeknight.
The second filter is what kind of evening it is. For an occasion, the historic rooms in Hollywood, downtown and Westwood. For a repertory film, the New Beverly, the Egyptian, the Aero or the Academy Museum. For a comfortable new release with no friction, the Valley or Culver City. For a film plus dinner in one walk, Los Feliz, Pasadena, Santa Monica or Culver City.
The formats worth travelling for
One last neighbourhood-crossing consideration: Los Angeles has several of the best-equipped premium auditoriums in the country, in Hollywood, downtown and the Valley, including large-format houses purpose-built rather than converted. For a film actually shot for those formats, that is worth a drive across the county in a way that a standard release never is. For everything else, the good room twenty minutes away beats the great room fifty minutes away, every time.
Practical notes
Book a later screening to avoid the evening traffic peak, which runs roughly three to seven. Check parking arrangements before you leave: garages and validation downtown and in Hollywood, street parking with permit restrictions in Los Feliz and Santa Monica, free lots in the Valley. Historic single-screen venues sell out for special programmes well in advance. Weekday matinees are the cheapest tickets in the county. And check which auditorium your screening is in at the larger multiplexes, because the difference within one building is substantial.
Tags: #LosAngeles #Movies #Cinema #MoviesNearMe #Hollywood #LosFeliz #DowntownLA #SantaMonica #CulverCity #Pasadena #SanFernandoValley #NeighborhoodGuide #LACulture #FilmLovers
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Ask Karpo first
Want to know which cinemas near you have something on tonight, how long the drive takes at this hour, and where to park when you get there? Ask Karpo before you book.
