Quentin Tarantino's New Beverly Cinema Plans To Reopen In December 2018

Here's some good news for movie lovers in Los Angeles. The New Beverly Cinema, the revival theatre owned and programmed by director Quentin Tarantino, is planning to open its doors again by the end of this year. Read the latest update below.

In a new blog post on the theatre's official site, representatives of The New Beverly explained today that they're hoping to reopen by December 2018. Here's the full announcement:

We would like to thank everyone for their patience while we have been working to get a target date for the re-opening of the New Beverly Cinema. If everything goes as planned, we are looking at a December 2018 re-opening.  While we are doing a lot of behind the scenes work to upgrade the theater, rest assured when we re-open, you will find the vintage New Beverly Cinema that we all know and love. We look forward to sharing more with all of you as we continue this process. Again, thank you for your patience, loyalty, and support.

The theater closed in January of this year to add upgrades, but we still aren't sure exactly what those will be:

nothing that we've announced publicly, though we'll be filling in the details as the re-opening approaches.

— New Beverly Cinema (@newbeverly) June 25, 2018

The New Bev is famous for showing double features seven nights a week. Tarantino, who had owned the building for years, took control of the theater in 2014 (amid a bit of controversy), removed its digital projector and doubled down on his commitment to only project actual film prints there – many of which come from his sizable personal collection. There are a 35mm and a 16mm projector, and the theater recently posted a job listing looking for qualified projectionists to join the team. In October of 2014, he began his duties as the head programmer of the theater.

There are plenty of places to see a movie in Los Angeles, but there's something special about The New Beverly. In addition to its cheap prices ($8 for double features), Tarantino's passion for cinema and disdain for digital projection is so visceral it's like a ghost that floats through that property.

Director Julia Marchese, who previously worked at The New Beverly, made a documentary about the theater a few years ago called Out of Print. If you've never been to the New Bev and are wondering what the big deal is about this theater, this trailer (which features interviews with people like Edgar Wright, Rian Johnson, Kevin Smith, Joe Dante, John Landis, Richard Kelly, and many more) may help explain the appeal: