10250 Santa Monica Blvd., Century City (Los Angeles), CA 90067 | map |
The mall opened in 1964. Chris Nichols comments in "Celebrating 60 Years of the Century City Shopping Center," his 2024 story for L.A. Magazine:
"New York developer William Zeckendorf teamed up with Alcoa aluminum to purchase the old 20th Century Fox backlot and transform it into a new ‘city within a city.’ They called on L.A.'s biggest architectural firm Welton Becket and Associates for a master plan. Becket had designed downtown’s Music Center, the Pan Pacific Auditorium, and the Capitol Records building in Hollywood.
"Construction began in 1961 on the first towers and the Becket firm soon moved their offices there. A new Broadway department store anchored the 15-acre mall which also had Silverwoods, a men's clothing store and a Mayfair Market, all with the novelty of underground parking. It opened on October 8th with a charity fundraiser for Children’s Hospital."
The original theatre: AMC Century 14
Opened: October 9, 1987. It was on the north end of the mall at the corner of Santa Monica Blvd. and Century Park West. Michael Coate comments about the earlier soft opening:
An October 9 L.A. Times ad. Thanks to Mike Rivest for locating it.
The theatre had two snackbars plus an espresso stand. At least two houses were 70mm equipped. Russ Jones notes that several of the larger auditoria had THX certification. Several had Torus screens, curved both vertically and horizontally. They were held in place by negative air pressure behind the screens. Michael Coate comments:
"The
AMC Century 14 was among the handful of theaters that was equipped with
Cinema Digital Sound (CDS), the 1990-1991 precursor to the contemporary
digital sound formats."
Seating:
3,800. Jeff Arellano notes that the four largest houses sat about 450
each and the other nine each sat about 200.
A 1988 plan of the center from the site Mall Hall of Fame. The Marketplace had replaced a restaurant called Century House. What's seen here in the center as The Broadway is now Bloomingdale's. The Bullock's location was later a Macy's and is now a Nordstrom store.
Cinema Treasures contributor Fieldight notes:
"Btw
this was the EASIEST theatre to sneak into in its day. The exit was at
the bottom of a long flight of stairs and you just walked back up those
stairs when people were exiting and made a bee line to the bathroom."
Closing: December 13, 2005. The new theatre opened the next day.
Looking south toward the new theatre. Photo: Bill Counter - 2024
The replacement theatre: AMC Century City 15
Opened: December 14, 2005. We're on the mall's Level 2 looking south. Photo: Bill Counter - 2024
Website: amctheatres.com/movie-theatres/los-angeles/amc-century-city-15
Seating: 2,548. It's a three-level complex at the back of the mall. Theatres 1 to 8, including houses branded as Imax and AMC Prime, are on level 1. Level 2 has the main entrance, ticketing and a lounge with a bar. Escalators on that level go down to the lower theatres or up to level 3 for theatres 9 to 15, including the Dolby Vision auditorium, #14. #15 is the largest theatre in the complex, seating 300 using conventional theatre seats.
Architects: STK Architects. See their website: www.stkinc.com
More information: See the Cinema Treasures pages about the AMC Century 14 and the replacement AMC Century City 15. Cinema Tour has a page about the Century 14 with nineteen 2005 photos from Jeff Arellano.
See Alison Martino's "Memories of the Old Century City Mall" on Alison's Time Machine. Alison located an early 4 minute Century City promotional film from Periscope Films.
A 1976 Julius Shulman photo in the collection of the Getty Research Institute. It's one that Chris Nichols includes in "Celebrating 60 Years of the Century City Shopping Center," his October 2024 story for L.A. Magazine.
Nearby once upon a time: Century Plaza Theatres | Shubert Theatre |
| back to top | Westside theatres | Hollywood | Westwood and Brentwood | Santa Monica and Venice | Westside theatres: alphabetical list | Westside theatres: by street address | Los Angeles theatres - the main alphabetical list | theatre history resources | film and theatre tech resources | welcome and site navigation guide |
The 1986 rendering of a building that looks like a big barn is not actually the old AMC location, that building was the old food court. The original AMC was next to it, on the far left of that image. One corner of the AMC is just barely visible in the rendering.
ReplyDeleteRight. As you can see from the page, images of the 1987 theatre are few and far between.
DeleteApologies, there was a typo in my previous comment. I meant the far right of the image is the old AMC, not the left.
DeleteYes. I found a better version of that rendering -- with signage on the theatre building, but again just getting a sliver of it on the far right. Also added -- plan of the center as it was in 1988. Thanks for the nudge on this!
Delete