Dear Friend of the American Cinematheque at the Egyptian Theatre,

Thank you for joining 3433 concerned citizens who have signed the petition urging the board of the American Cinematheque to hold a public meeting, explain the problems facing the troubled non-profit, halt any potential sale of the Egyptian Theatre and be transparent about its plans moving forward. The petition is directed to the board, to the local city councilmember's office, and to the California Attorney General, who was already investigating the American Cinematheque before it sought to sell the theater.

The Egyptian was sold to Netflix for $14.4 Million, and like all Los Angeles venues, has been shuttered for months. We now know that Netflix wants to keep the Egyptian closed until its 2022 centennial, while reducing the number of seats, removing the Spielberg screening room and balcony, changing the lobby and courtyard layouts, and installing a hidden Dolby Atmos sound system.

Because the Egyptian Theatre is a designated Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument, Netflix cannot continue making decisions about the property in secret, but must make public presentations to the Cultural Heritage Commission, requesting approval to do any work.

The first of these presentations was made last Thursday, January 7, and was purely informational. No decisions were made about Netflix changing the landmark.

The city does not archive these highly visual Zoom presentations, but only makes the audio available. But thanks to a concerned community member, you can watch a video of the Zoom presentation in which Netflix representatives click through a slideshow and describe the project. Also included are public comments, and some questions from the commissioners.

Netflix’ slideshow can be seen on the city’s website here (Agenda Item 5), and is also visible during the Zoom presentation.

Even with tight restrictions on how much time community members had to express themselves, it was apparent that there are major concerns about the project and about Netflix being unresponsive and non-transparent to the community.

These concerns include the blandness of the proposed renovations around the stage and in the lobby, the proposed removal of the courtyard palm trees, lack of communication with local theater and historic preservation nonprofits, the reduced the number of seats and the impact of this reduction on the financial viability of festivals, the American Cinematheque and local businesses.

However, when listening to public comment, please note that our Richard Schave misspoke when he described the scale of the loss. On review, it appears that 78 seats would be lost with the removal of the Spielberg Theatre, and an additional 76 seats lost with the removal of the balcony and changes to the main auditorium. This would reduce the size of the Egyptian from 694 to 540 seats, a 22% decrease. This remains an issue of great concern to us, and we want to understand if Netflix is removing these seats to accommodate the hidden Atmos Dolby sound system.

So what happened at the meeting? Although community members expressed hope that the Cultural Heritage Commission would create a subcommittee to oversee the project, the commissioners did not take on that responsibility. So it will be up to citizens to keep paying attention and continue speaking out, as Netflix returns to the CHC seeking permission to take the historic theater down to the studs so they can hide 21st century sound equipment within the structure.

We are hopeful that with the oversight of the Cultural Heritage Commission and especially the concerned public, the future of the Egyptian Theatre will be a positive one.

Please continue to share the petition with friends who love the American Cinematheque and want to see it thrive in the historic Egyptian Theatre on Hollywood Boulevard. And stay tuned for additional news as we have it.

Yours for Los Angeles,
Kim Cooper & Richard Schave
Friends of the American Cinematheque at the Egyptian Theatre