During Wildfires, Angelenos Sought Comfort in a Familiar Refuge: Movie Theaters
Like so many Angelenos, Cheyenne Shannon’s routine came to a halt in the hours after the devastating Palisades Fire broke out on the morning of Jan. 7, followed by the Eaton Fire in Altadena. She lives in Culver City and has never come close to being evacuated but, like everyone, knows many who are temporarily — or permanently — displaced. The unfolding disaster reopened wounds of the pandemic and the fear of being forced to stay inside once again. And for the thousands of those working in the entertainment industry like Shannon, a talent agent repping music video directors, it also reignited fears that more production will leave L.A. for good.
Her method of coping? Escape to the movies as much as possible. She saw three the week of the fires, culminating with Brady Corbet’s acclaimed drama The Brutalist, starring Adrien Brody as a Holocaust survivor and architect who is commissioned to build a community area for a rich benefactor. I met up with her during the film’s intermission — it runs three hours and 34 minutes — in the lobby at AMC Century City 15. “It’s been a very sad week,” Shannon says. “Coming to the movies is a way to get away from everything and be distracted by a different story but still leave feeling triumphant in some sense.”
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Shannon was hardly the only Angeleno who used movie theaters to escape from the deluge of bad news and the constant inclination to doomscroll (this was one weekend when no one was complaining about having to turn off their cellphones). AMC’s Century City location, situated in the upscale Westfield mall, came surprisingly close to remaining the top-grossing theater in the country over the Jan. 10-12 weekend despite its proximity to the Palisades Fire and nearby neighborhoods under evacuation orders or warnings.
And it wasn’t just Century City that represented Los Angeles among the country’s top five-grossing theaters. No. 1 was New York City’s AMC Lincoln Square ($227,000), followed by Century City ($221,000), AMC Burbank 16 ($178,000), AMC The Grove 14 ($145,000) and Orlando’s AMC Disney Springs 24 ($142,000), according to studio sources with access to proprietary data. Business was especially strong on Jan. 10 because of school closures.
And in an enduring symbol of the importance of movie theaters to the fabric of a community, the decades-old Bay Theater in the Palisades was one of the few structures to survive (it’s not presently open, of course). It’s part of a small mall owned and operated by mega-developer Rick Caruso, who hired private crews to protect the commercial parcel that includes newer buildings reportedly constructed with fire-retardant materials.
“Los Angeles-area movie theaters that were able to remain open offered a safe haven of sorts to their patrons looking for a respite or temporary escape from the devastating fires happening in real time in the region,” notes chief Comscore analyst Paul Dergarabedian.
Another advantage: Many theaters have sophisticated air-filtration systems that were installed during the pandemic era, a significant draw considering the hazardous air quality due to the fires.
That’s not to say the Greater L.A. moviegoing market wasn’t impacted. Usually, it is the top market in the country; it slipped to No. 2 over the Jan. 10-12 weekend but remained second only to New York. Several key theaters were hit hard because of heavy smoke and proximity to the fires: Ticket sales plummeted 51 percent at Universal Cinema AMC at CityWalk and fell 37 percent at AMC The Americana at Brand 18, near Altadena. And the former ArcLight at the Sherman Oaks Galleria, which bordered an evacuation area as the fire spread, was a ghost town (business has never been the same since Regal took over, sources say).
The fires, which have left thousands without homes, come at a precarious time for the box office, which needs to hit on all cylinders this year after a downturn in 2023. And with Los Angeles being the top moviegoing market, studios and theater owners are hoping the distraction provided by a trip to the movies — which still costs far less than other forms of entertainment — continues as the city begins a long and arduous recovery.
By mid-afternoon on Jan. 11, the view from the plaza outside of AMC Century City was a grim reminder of the looming Palisades Fire and its advance on different fronts. While the sky directly above the mall was blue, the incredibly long wall of smoke above the hills to the north was unnerving. Four energetic boys, accompanied by their babysitter, were laughing and jostling with each other as they tried to figure out how the automatic ticket machine worked for a mid-afternoon showing of Sonic the Hedgehog 3. All four had been evacuated from their homes. The eldest, who is 12, is from the Palisades. His family’s home wasn’t burned to the ground, although he didn’t know how bad the smoke damage was at the time. “I think it’s safe because we live in a little valley. It hovered over us and went away,” said the shy teen. The three others live in Brentwood’s Mandeville Canyon. Said the youngest, 10, in explaining the outing, “There was really nothing to do, so my mom said, ‘Why don’t we get them to a movie?’ ”
Many with whom I spoke were there to see The Brutalist. They said the parallels between the movie and the fires were striking, since it’s a story of tragedy, rebuilding and perseverance. “Those are really good themes for what’s going on in L.A.,” Shannon noted. To boot, when factoring in the movie’s hefty running time, trailers and a 15-minute intermission, that meant a lengthy and welcome respite from the unfolding tragedy. (From A24, the film is an Oscar frontrunner and swept top honors at the Globes, including best drama motion picture, best director and best actor.)
Three older women, all wearing masks, were among those coming to Century City to see the film. One spoke of having lived in the Palisades for 27 years and raising her family there. As of Jan. 11, she heard her former home had survived, but she was visibly shaken as she spoke of the incredible overall loss, including more than 1,200 structures going up in flames and hundreds more damaged. When asked why they were wearing masks inside the theater — most patrons took them off once they entered — she said she and her friends were worried about being exposed to viruses making the rounds. But she said it was important for her to make a statement and get out of the house: “I’m not going back to living like we did during COVID.”
One young woman at the theater, who lives in Santa Monica, was evacuated and went to a friend’s house in the West Hollywood area before deciding to head over to see The Brutalist. “Why not even be more sad?” she said. “And it is more than four hours. What else are we going to do? I wanted to get away from it all.”
This story first appeared in the Jan. 17 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. To receive the magazine, click here to subscribe.
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