The 12-screen cinema opened in 2007 as an extension of the Westside Pavilion, an indoor shopping mall that had been operational since 1985 and was still open at the time. The Landmark shared retail space with a three-story Barnes & Noble (accessible through the theater’s lobby) and an expensive pub on the ground level, and was connected to the shopping complex by a bridge that spanned over Westwood.
However, as the whims of capitalism dictated, landlords began dismantling pieces of the mall/theater setup, eventually selling the Pavilion to Google (a massive office complex is currently being built in its place), shuttering the tavern, and evicting Barnes & Noble in favor of a furniture store and then a vacant storefront. The Landmark — which was bought by the Cohen Media Group in 2018 — continued to operate independently for several years, including premieres, Q&As with directors, a cocktail bar, upmarket food, and the rare 70mm presentation. The Landmark’s 12 screens were purposefully split between indie, foreign, and mainstream commercial films. The theatre was permanently shuttered.
The Landmark is just the latest in a string of movie theatre closures in a market that has become more unfriendly to them. Several financial articles have been written on COVID-19’s bad influence on the movie industry, and anybody who lives in a theater-heavy area has certainly witnessed the closing of many local movie theatres. The reality is that there are fewer screens in operation in the United States than there were only two years ago, and despite massive box receipts from films like “Godzilla,” “Batman,” and “Doctor Strange,” theatres have been struggling in general. That type of sadness doesn’t feel nice, despite what Nicole Kidman has said.
Of course, movie theatres have suffered significant setbacks in the past. The popularity of television sets, as well as the migration of many American families into the suburbs, far away from “destination” downtown movie houses, saw a significant shutdown of movie theatres in the 1950s. Importantly, the 1948 Paramount Decree went into effect on January 1, 1950, essentially prohibiting movie studios from owning their own cinemas. Prior to the order, studios were allowed to make movies as well as control the theatres where they were shown, resulting in a self-dealing, vertical integration structure that had been the industry standard for decades.
