Why ArcLight Hollywood Was More Than a Movie Theater
A quiet and empty Cinerama Dome of the ArcLight Cinemas (Photo by Jay L. Clendenin/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)
Photo: Jay L. Clendenin/LA Times via Getty Images
On Monday, Deadline reported that ArcLight Cinemas and Pacific Theaters would close down permanently. Quickly, filmmakers, fans, and former employees took to Twitter to publicly mourn the loss, with reactions ranging from stand-alone expletives to sorrow to denial — and also some priceless remembrances.
While Pacific and ArcLight theaters were far from the first — or most tragic — casualties of the coronavirus pandemic, the closings still delivered an unexpected blow to movie fans. ArcLight Hollywood employees who had been laid off when the theater shut down last March had, as recently as a month ago, been told by management that the theater planned to reopen when doing so became profitable once more. So when employees learned of the closure from Monday’s Deadline article, some, like crew member Sarah Gwen, described feeling “blindsided.” “We were all Snapchatting in a group, ‘Is this real?’” added former host Nick Earl.