Quentin Tarantino Buys L.A.’s Historic Vista Theater
Written by SOURCE on July 5, 2021
America’s largest movie theater chains have struggled throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, and Quentin Tarantino doesn’t seem to be losing much sleep over it.
In the latest episode of Dax Shepard’s Armchair Expert podcast, Tarantino shared his thoughts on the future of movie theaters and the movie industry at large. While he remarked that he doesn’t like to see any theater close its doors. he did say that “some of these exhibitors that are going, they fucking deserve to go.” Making his feelings on such chains abundantly clear, Tarantino added that “they’ve taken all the specialness out of movies anyway.”
At the start of 2021, AMC Theatres publicly declared that it was facing the very real threat of bankruptcy this year. In recent weeks, theaters have rebounded thanks to the release of films like F9, which has made over $125 million domestically since its opening just over a week ago.
“They have been writing their own epitaph for a long time, but they assumed the business would take you along,” Tarantino continued. “It’s been crazy throughout my career to see how the film experience is lessened for the viewer like every five years.”
Tarantino does think that the current state of moviegoing is a great opportunity for boutique or arthouse cinemas to “actually thrive in this time.” Speaking of which, Tarantino also revealed that he bought Los Angeles’ beloved Vista Theatre. He’s planning to reopen Los Feliz’s classic single-screen theater by Christmas.
“We’ll show new movies that come out where they give us a film print,” he continued, comparing the theater to the New Beverly, which he purchased in 2007. “It’s not going to be like the New Beverly [Cinema]. The New Beverly has its own vibe. The Vista is like a crown jewel kind of thing. We’ll show older films, but it will be like you can hold a four-night engagement.”
Listen to the full episode of the podcast above.
