Los Angeles Theatres: The Landmark

10850 W. Pico Blvd. Los Angeles, CA 90064 | map |

The sad news: The last day of operation was Sunday, May 22, 2022. The lease expired and no satisfactory deal was possible with the landlord.

Opened: The 12 screen venue opened June 1, 2007. It was a project conceived by Ted Mundorff, then the CEO of Landmark Theatres. This replaced the Westside Pavilion Cinemas, an earlier four screen complex in the mall at Pico and Westwood. The Picwood Theatre and the Pico Drive-In were earlier on portions of the Westwood Pavilions site. Photo: Bill Counter - May 2022

Website: www.landmarktheatres.com

Seating: 2,000 total in the 12 auditoria. 1-7 were on the 2nd floor with 1, 2 and 7 each with 300 seats. 3 and 4 each had about 100, 5 and 6 were about 50 each. 8-12 were on the 3rd floor with 8 at 200 and 12 at 250. 9, 10 and 11 were "living room" auditoria with sofas, in the 30 to 50 seat range each.

Architects: Jon Jerde designed the building, an expansion of the original Westside Pavilion. The theatres were designed by Pleskow & Rael of Marina del Rey along with F+A Architects of Pasadena. Dana Foley designed the wine bar. The building was discussed in "Make believe it's your living room," an article the June 1, 2007 issue of the Times by their architecture critic Christopher Hawthorne. It's reproduced at the bottom of the page.

When the complex opened in 2007 they had Sony digital projectors for all the auditoria. At the end, auditorium #6 was also equipped for 35mm. Auditorium #7 had 70mm capability, equipment installed for "The Hateful Eight." An engagement of "Licorice Pizza" was perhaps the last run in that format. Auditorium #8 had an Atmos installation.

Closing: May 22, 2022 was the last day of operation. The lease was expiring and Landmark was unable to reach a satisfactory new deal with the landlord. This was the closing announcement that the chain sent out on May 11:

"To Our Valued Landmark Pico Audience: After 15 years serving the Los Angeles moviegoing community at the Pico location Landmark Theatres announced today that it will be closing the doors of its westside cinema when its lease expires at the end of May. Landmark Theatres’ President Kevin Holloway stated 'For months, we’ve worked to extend our tenancy of The Landmark Pico but have been unable to reach terms. We send our deepest appreciation to the Pico staff, guests, and the filmmaking community for their support over the years. We’re exploring opportunities to expand our Los Angeles footprint, which we hope to be able to share more on soon.'"

Deadline commented on the news with their May 11, 2022 article "Landmark Theatres' Pico Venue To Close..." Variety's story that day was titled "Landmark Pico Theaters Closing, in Another Casualty of Los Angeles Movie Scene." In "Another One Bites the Dust...," Tom Brueggemann's May 11 story for IndieWire, he noted:

"Since reopening about a year ago, The Landmark struggled with a significant drop in box office — the same problem facing many theaters with older audiences. It’s also faced a declining number of platform releases, with the top specialized films that have worked — A24’s recent 'Everything Everywhere All at Once,' for example — making only brief platform runs. That means when the titles expanded, theaters like the Landmark no longer enjoyed the clearance (AKA the lack of competing theaters) it once had... Landmark grosses were in decline even before Covid-19. In 2019, its box office came to $6.5 million, down from $11.5 million in 2018. Through this weekend, the theater grossed $1.1 million in 2022."

In "Landmark Pico Theatre's Closing is a Personal Loss," Claudia Eller's May 18 Variety Article, she discussed her moviegoing there. Pat Saperstein had a May 18 story for Variety titled "Los Angeles Arthouses Face Uphill Battle After Latest High-Profile Closing."

Landmark Theatres was once known as Parallax Theatre Systems, a firm started in 1974 by Gary Meyer and Kim Jorgensen. It was taken over by Steve Gilula, who was with the chain until 1998 and later went to Fox Searchlight. After other owners it headed into bankruptcy and had the hedge fund firm Oaktree Capital in charge when it emerged from the proceedings. In 2003 it was acquired by Mark Cuban and Todd Wagner's 2929 Entertainment.

Ted Mundorff, who had been with the circuit since 2003, became CEO in 2007 and guided Landmark through rapid growth to become the leading player in the specialty film market nationwide. Cuban and Wagner sold the chain in 2018 to Charles S. Cohen's Cohen Media Group. At the time Landmark had 252 screens in 27 markets. Mundorff resigned in 2019, citing differences in management philosophy. In 2020 he became the President and COO at ArcLight.

Following the demise of this complex and closures in other cities Landmark was left with about 32 theatres in 22 different markets and approximately 170 screens total. Cohen also owns the Curzon chain, an artie exhibitor in Britain.

Status: It's unknown at this point what the future use of the theatre areas will be. The rest of the building is being redeveloped as tech office space. It's owned by studio property developer Hudson Pacific in a joint venture with Macerich, a real estate investment trust that operates shopping centers and various mixed-use buildings.

Interior views:

Coming up from the parking garage. The doors out to Pico are over toward the left. Photo: Bill Counter - May 2022

Looking in from the front doors. The Westside Tavern had once been over on the right but it was a Covid casualty. It's a photo that appeared with a May 2022 Variety story about the closing.

A view toward the stairs and escalators. Photo: Bill Counter - May 2022

Up to the 2nd floor. Photo: Bill Counter - May 2022

Approaching the boxoffice. Photo: Bill Counter - May 2022

The boxoffice. Unstaffed on this lazy afternoon. Photo: Bill Counter - May 2022

Beyond the boxoffice it was a display area, the snackbar and, on the far right, self-service ticket kiosks and the elevator. Photo: Bill Counter - May 2022

The display area east of the snackbar with dead retail space on the left. Photo: Bill Counter - May 2022

The 2nd floor view back out toward Pico. Photo: Bill Counter - May 2022

The snackbar. With vegan bratwurst, pretzels, wine, beer. Photo: Bill Counter - May 2022

Ticket kiosks across from the snackbar. The winebar was behind the slatted wall. Photo: Bill Counter - May 2022

Auditoria 1 through 7 were on the 2nd floor, straight ahead beyond the snackbar. The winebar was off to the right. Photo: Bill Counter - 2007

A view into the corridor from beyond the snackbar. Photo: Bill Counter - May 2022

In the bar: looking toward Pico. Photo: Bill Counter - May 2022

Looking to the left. The ceiling of the west side of the bar reflects the slope of the upper section of auditorium 1 beyond. Photo: Bill Counter - May 2022

From in front of the windows: looking back toward the lobby. Photo: Bill Counter - May 2022

Last call. The bar on the final day of operation, May 22. Photo: Bill Counter

Looking along the side of the winebar toward the entrance to auditorium 1. Photo: Bill Counter - May 2022

The tunnel into auditorium 1. Photo: Bill Counter - May 2022

The back of auditorium 1. The capacity here was 300. Photo: Bill Counter - May 2022

The screen end of auditorium 1. Screen width was about 42'. Photo: Bill Counter - May 2022

Farther down the corridor toward the entrances to auditoria 3 through 7. Photo: Bill Counter - May 2022

Auditorium 4. Capacity here was about 100. Photo: Bill Counter - May 2022

The rear of auditorium 4. Photo: Bill Counter - May 2022

A look back toward the outer lobby and the entrances on the right for 2 and 3. Photo: Bill Counter - May 2022

Looking out toward the snackbar and elevator. The boxoffice was down at the end and around the corner to the left. Photo: Bill Counter - 2018

The view on a deserted afternoon a few days before closing. Photo: Bill Counter - May 2022

A peek into the men's room. Photo: Bill Counter - May 2022

Heading up to the 3rd floor. Photo: Bill Counter - May 2022

The lounge area on the 3rd floor. The poster in the alcove was for "Petite Mamman." Photo: Bill Counter - May 2022

A 3rd floor view. Photo: Bill Counter - May 2022

Rotating about 120 degrees to the right from the previous shot. A look toward the elevator and the entrances to auditoria 8 through 12. Photo: Bill Counter - May 2022

In front of the elevator. Photo: Bill Counter - May 2022

A look over the edge. The display case has a costume from "Downton Abbey: A New Era," a film that opened five days before the theatre closed. Photo: Bill Counter - May 2022

The 3rd floor pod with the entrance doors to auditorium 8 on the left. Photo: Bill Counter - May 2022

The tunnel into auditorium 8. Photo: Bill Counter - May 2022

The screen emerges. Photo: Bill Counter - May 2022

The rear of auditorium 8. Note the Atmos speaker installation. Photo: Bill Counter - May 2022

The screen end of auditorium 8. Capacity here was 200. Photo: Bill Counter - May 2022

Another 3rd floor entrance pod view. The winding corridor at the center led to the upstairs restrooms. That's auditorium 9's entrance toward the right. Photo: Bill Counter - May 2022

The tunnel into auditorium 9. Photo: Bill Counter - May 2022

The rear of auditorium 9. The capacity here was 32. Photo: Bill Counter - May 2022

The screen end of auditorium 9. Photo: Bill Counter - May 2022

The entrances for auditoria 10, 11 and 12. And refreshments! Photo: Bill Counter - 2018

A look to the rear of auditorium 12. It had a capacity of 250. Photo: Bill Counter - 2018

After the final shows:

In this house the screen was gone, the seats were out and the speakers were ready to be carted away. The complex closed May 22 but they weren't using all the screens for the last day of operation. Thanks to Sarah Feldsted for this May 22 photo.