Los Angeles Theatres: United Artists Cinema Center / Coronet / UA Westwood

10889 Wellworth Ave. Los Angeles, CA 90024 | map |

Opening: This theatre opened as the United Artists Cinema Center in 1972. It's a building that previously had been an auto showroom on the northeast corner of Wellworth and Westwood Blvd. The Crest / Nimoy Theatre is just up the street.

A July 26, 1972 opening day ad. Thanks to Mike Rivest for locating it.

It was later known as the UA Coronet and, finally the UA Westwood. It opened as a 4-plex but in its final years was only 3 as the two smallest auditoria were combined to make a larger one.

Russ Jones comments:

"It was a decent cinema. Theatre 1 and 2 were both THX. Curiously, this place never did get Dolby Stereo Digital. The only digital sound systems that they had here were DTS 6 track, SDDS-8 and Kodak’s ill-fated CDS."

David March, a former projectionist at the theatre, notes:

"During my tenure, 1989-1994, 70mm could be shown in all three auditoriums. Theaters 1&2 had Century JJ projectors, and theatre 3 had a Norleco."

Seating: When it was a triplex the capacity was 500, 500 and 200.

Status: It closed in 2002 and got remodeled into a CVS pharmacy.

The other UA Westwood: United Artists also operated another house as the UA Westwood prior to losing the lease to Cineplex Odeon. That theatre, north of Wilshire, ended up as the Mann Festival.

1988 - "Just Say No to Colors!" It wasn't that the protestor on the left wanted a more monochrome life. He was upset about the Dennis Hopper film "Colors," an April release. This shot by Mike Mullen from the Los Angeles Public Library's collection was taken on Wellworth Ave., looking toward the theatre entrance. Thanks to Christina Rice, head of the Library's photo collection, for sharing the image. A cropped version of this appeared with an Examiner story on April 15 about the need to increase police presence at various area theatres. The lady with the umbrella didn't make the cut.

1990 - Thanks to Richard DuVal for this photo he took of the Westwood side of the building when it was the UA Coronet Cinemas. He shared it as a post on the private Facebook group Westwood and the Westside - Past, Present, Future.

1998 - A tiny view of the Westwood side of the building by Don Ceppi that appears on the Silver Screens page about Los Angeles Theatres. At the time they were calkling it the United Artists Westwood.

1998 - The Wellworth side of the complex. It's another photo from the Silver Screens page. "Vampires" and "The Hobbit" were two of their titles the week of the photo.