Santa Monica went two decades without a new movie theater, and now, in less than four months, BAM! It's getting two. The Santa Monica Daily Press reports that the city is in negotiations with the folks at Arclight to finally build a theater on the site of Parking Structure 3, on Fourth Street near Arizona. But wait, wasn't it just announced that SaMo will be getting an Arclight at Santa Monica Place? Yup. Santa Monica is the first city so fancy that it needs two of the fanciest movie theaters. AMC tried for several years to build a cineplex on the Fourth Street site, but those plans finally died for good in late 2012. Suck it, AMC—SaMo is an Arclight Town! (Actually, AMC has two theaters in town and there's an arty Laemmle, too, so it's anybody's game.)
The Fourth Street theater is still in the early stages, but official plans could be presented to the city council by the end of the month. It sounds like it'll definitely have an Imax theater and more seats than the 1,500 proposed at Santa Monica Place, although "it's unlikely that there will be significantly more screens," according to a rep for SaMo's Housing and Economic Development department, meaning it'll have larger auditoriums. The SaMo Place theater could also have Imax. And if SaMo tries to get a third Arclight next month, someone's going to have to organize an intervention.
· Second cinema in works for Downtown [SMDP]
· SaMo's First New Movie Theater In 20 Years Will Be An Arclight [Curbed LA]
· Downtown Santa Monica AMC Theater Project is Dead For Now [Curbed LA]
Loading comments...