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Quentin Tarantino's New Beverly Cinema Reopens On June 1

New Beverly reopening
By Hoai-Tran Bui

Movie theaters have suffered under the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, with several beloved landmarks forced to shutter due to the financial toll. But at least one iconic theater is guaranteed a grand reopening: Los Angeles' New Beverly Cinema, owned and operated by Quentin Tarantino. The New Beverly Cinema reopening date has been set, after more than a year of being closed in response to the pandemic last March.

The New Beverly Cinema announced its grand reopening date next month on social media. "More info coming soon...," the theater posted to Twitter Saturday, along with a photo of its historic marquee. As you can see in the image below, the marquee reads: "Re-opening June 1, 2021. Because we love showing movies."

The New Beverly had been closed since the spring of last year due to the pandemic, though the venue has weathered long-term closures before. It was shuttered for a year due to renovations before reopening in 2018 to great fanfare.

The theater, which seats 228 people, first opened in 1929. Tarantino has long owned the building, taking over the theater in 2007 after the death of its previous owner, Sherman Torgan, to keep the venue open and screen classic movies on real celluloid film prints. In 2014, he became head curator of the theater and — in a bit of controversial move — removed its digital projector and doubled down on his commitment to only project actual 16mm and 35mm prints. The theater regularly screens double bills of Tarantino films as well as many of his favorite classics.

"It was going to be turned into a Supercuts," the director said at the time about saving the theater, per The Hollywood Reporter. "I'd been coming to the New Beverly ever since I was old enough to drive there from the South Bay — since about 1982. So I couldn't let that happen."

Former manager Julia Marchese, who said she was forced to quit when Tarantino decided to expand his role, directed a 2014 documentary about the theater called Out of Print, which featured interviews with filmmakers like Edgar Wright, Rian Johnson, Kevin Smith, Joe Dante, John Landis, Richard Kelly, and many more.

A few of those same filmmakers recently rallied around the Hollywood Arclight, which was one of the recent casualties of the pandemic. The news of The New Beverly's opening comes three weeks after Decurion announced the closure of LA's Arclight Cinemas and Pacific Theatres, which includes the Arclight and its iconic Cinerama Dome. Built in 1963, the Dome made a cameo in Tarantino's Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. Many movie fans hoped that Tarantino would step in to save the Arclight like he did with The New Beverly, though the filmmaker hasn't said anything since the closure was announced.

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