Movie palaces, playhouses and outdoor stages, most of them still putting on shows. 16 places, each with a map.
6925 Hollywood Blvd. · Hollywood
Sid Grauman opened his Chinese Theatre in May 1927 with the premiere of Cecil B. DeMille’s The King of Kings. Stars have pressed their hands and feet into its forecourt ever since, and about 200 sets of prints now line the courtyard. It still hosts major premieres and runs one of the largest IMAX auditoriums anywhere.
6712 Hollywood Blvd. · Hollywood
Hollywood’s first grand movie palace opened in 1922 with Douglas Fairbanks in Robin Hood, the boulevard’s first big premiere. Sid Grauman built it five years before the Chinese. Restored by the American Cinematheque in 1998 and renovated again after Netflix bought it in 2020, it screens classics and new films behind its palm-lined courtyard.
6838 Hollywood Blvd. · Hollywood
Built in 1926 as a playhouse for live theater, the El Capitan hosted the world premiere of Orson Welles’s Citizen Kane in 1941, when other theaters would not risk it. It became a movie house the following year. Disney restored its ornate interior in 1991 and uses it for premieres and first-run family films.
6233 Hollywood Blvd. · Hollywood
Opened in 1930 as the last great movie palace built by vaudeville impresario Alexander Pantages, this art deco showplace hosted the Academy Awards throughout the 1950s after Howard Hughes bought it. Its lobby and auditorium are among the most lavish in Los Angeles. Today it presents touring Broadway musicals, so a show ticket gets you inside.
6801 Hollywood Blvd. · Hollywood
Built for the Academy Awards on the site of the old Hollywood Hotel, the theater opened in 2001 as the Kodak Theatre and has hosted the Oscars nearly every year since 2002. Guided tours take visitors inside when no event is scheduled, including a look at the stage where the statuettes are handed out.
6215 Sunset Blvd. · Hollywood
This streamline moderne ballroom opened on Halloween night in 1940 with Tommy Dorsey’s orchestra and a young Frank Sinatra on vocals. It was the swing era’s grandest dance hall, later home to Lawrence Welk’s broadcasts and to decades of rock, punk and hip-hop shows. Its neon sign on Sunset is a landmark in its own right.
1735 N. Vine St. · Hollywood
Opened in 1927 as the Hollywood Playhouse, this Spanish-style theater across from Capitol Records became a broadcast stage in the television era. ABC taped the variety show The Hollywood Palace here, where the Rolling Stones made their first American TV appearance in 1964. It now operates as a nightclub and concert venue.
6126 Hollywood Blvd. · Hollywood
Opened in 1926 as the Music Box, a home for musical revues, this Spanish Colonial theater later served as a legitimate stage, a movie house and a broadcast studio. Renamed for Henry Fonda in 1985, it is now an intimate concert hall. Catch a show and look for the rooftop bar with views of the Hollywood Sign.
1615 N. Vine St. · Hollywood
Built in 1927 as a legitimate playhouse, this Vine Street theater spent the golden age of radio and early television as a broadcast studio. Actor Ricardo Montalbán’s foundation acquired it around 2000 to support Latino performers and new work. Its rooftop hosts outdoor movie screenings with the Capitol Records tower glowing a block away.
2301 N. Highland Ave. · Hollywood Hills
Concerts have filled this natural amphitheater since 1922, and its concentric shell became a symbol of Los Angeles; the current shell dates from 2004. The Beatles played here in 1964 and 1965, and the Los Angeles Philharmonic makes it its summer home. Bring a picnic: visitors can eat at their seats or in the surrounding gardens.
2580 Cahuenga Blvd. E. · Hollywood Hills
Across the freeway from the Hollywood Bowl, this 1,200-seat outdoor theater began in 1920 as the home of the Pilgrimage Play, a staging of the life of Christ. The original wooden theater burned in 1929 and was rebuilt in concrete in 1931. Its summer season mixes music, dance and theater against a canyon backdrop.
2700 N. Vermont Ave. · Griffith Park
Built in Griffith Park with money left to the city by Griffith J. Griffith, the Greek opened in 1930 and became one of the country’s best-loved concert venues. Neil Diamond recorded his live album Hot August Night here in 1972. The 5,900-seat amphitheater sits in a wooded canyon below the Griffith Observatory.
6433 Hollywood Blvd. · Hollywood
Warner Bros. opened this movie palace in 1928 as its Hollywood flagship, and the steel radio towers on its roof broadcast the studio’s station KFWB. Damaged in the 1994 Northridge earthquake, it has been closed to regular audiences for decades, but its Italian Renaissance facade and rooftop towers still dominate this stretch of the boulevard.
4473 Sunset Dr. · Los Feliz
Opened in 1923 as Bard’s Hollywood Theatre, this single-screen cinema stands across from where D.W. Griffith built the towering Babylon set for Intolerance in 1916. Its Spanish exterior hides an Egyptian-style auditorium. Quentin Tarantino bought the Vista in 2021 and reopened it for film prints, keeping one of Los Angeles’s oldest movie houses alive.
6360 Sunset Blvd. · Hollywood
Opened in 1963 with It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World, this honeycomb dome was built from hundreds of precast concrete panels to show films in the curved-screen Cinerama process. It is a designated city landmark. Its long run as part of the ArcLight cinemas ended in 2021, so check for current screenings before planning a visit.
2035 N. Highland Ave. · Hollywood
American Legion Post 43 built this Egyptian Revival clubhouse in 1929 for veterans of World War I, many of them working in the film business. Its restored theater now screens classic films and hosts events, and the building is a city landmark. It stands on Highland Avenue just below the Hollywood Bowl, an easy stop before a concert.