The legendary TCL Chinese Theatre
reopens to the public tomorrow following several months of renovation
work that's made it into one of the biggest IMAX venues in the world.
The 1927 theater's newish owners were careful to preserve the Chinese's
beautiful and historic features (it was designed by Raymond Kennedy,
with details by art director John G. Beckman) while removing the old
orchestra pit to accommodate an enormous 94 by 46-foot screen, adding
cushy stadium seating (932 seats), and putting in more efficient LED
lighting.
The Dissolve has a great piece
today explaining the technical updates (and the Chinese's long history
of technical updates): for the first time ever, the theater won't have a
film projector in its booth. Most movies will be shown in
digital IMAX;
the latest projectors won't work well with the huge screen, so it'll be
masked at the sides until the Chinese gets the next generation (and it
should be one of the first to have those new projectors). The Chinese is
now the first and only IMAX game in the *neighborhood, but still also
the only grand movie place in the US still operating as a first-run
theater. Check out a time-lapse video of the renovations below--it's
pretty amazing to see the auditorium go from faded icon to pile of dirt
to shiny new updated icon
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