Los Angeles Arthouses Faces Uphill Battle After Latest High-Profile Closing
variety.comPat Saperstein Deputy EditorThe looming closure of Landmark Theatres’ Pico location is a significant loss for L.A.’s independent movie scene, which was already sorely missing the shuttered ArcLight Hollywood.
Getting art-house audiences to return to cinemas has been challenging as COVID-19 variants have swept the country, and now the question is whether the city that makes movies has enough theaters to show all kinds of titles — not just blockbusters.For moviegoers on the west side of Los Angeles, there was something special about the Landmark Pico, whose 12 screens programmed a wide variety of mostly independent and foreign films, along with industry screenings and panels.“Around the country, including in Los Angeles, there are just fewer theaters and fewer screens than there were before the pandemic,” says Jasper Basch, IFC Films and IFC Midnight head of theatrical distribution. “The Landmark Pico’s closure is going to contribute to this problem.” And it could hit Hollywood where it really hurts: Oscar consideration. “It’s going to be a problem for Academy runs,” predicts Sony Pictures Classics Co-President Tom Bernard.So without Landmark’s popular Westside location, which is set to close at the end of May, where’s the ideal place to open a buzzy independent title?“We’re very well positioned to pick up the slack,” says Laemmle Theatres President Greg Laemmle, who operates the bulk of the remaining art-houses in the city, including the Monica Film Center and the Royal on the Westside.
He points out that his theaters regularly program the smaller titles that “don’t always play in Century City.”“We believe in the long-term future of art-house exhibition,” says Laemmle.
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