UA Cinema Center
Theater Location: 10889 Wellworth Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 90024 (at Westwood Blvd)
Theater Chain: United Artists Theatres
Theater Open Date: July 26, 1972
Theater Status: Closed
Cast Affiliations
- Another Slice (1980-1983)
History
The UA Cinema Center in Westwood, CA was the second home of The Rocky Horror Picture Show, moving there on Christmas Day, 1975, after leaving the larger UA Westwood, a few blocks away. The UA Cinema Center was a second-run, 4-screen multiplex on Westwood Blvd (at Wellworth), just south of the main village, and showed The Rocky Horror Picture Show several times a day, including midnight shows on weekends. Early fans of the movie flocked to the small theater for repeat viewings, until its first run ended on March 20, 1976. The film moved to the nearby Holly Theater on Hollywood Blvd, where it had healthy 6-month run as a stand-alone feature (the longest known continuous standard release run of the film). Rocky returned to the UA Cinema Center when Rocky Horror went wide in over a dozen theaters in Los Angeles on October 6, 1976 on a double bill with Phantom of the Paradise at most theaters. At the UA, Rocky Horror was billed in the unlikely combination with a reissue of Nicholas Roeg's 1971 film Walkaboutfor several weeks. In 1978, it returned as a midnight-only movie.
The Rocky Horror Picture Show played the most prime-time dates at the UA Cinema Center than any other theater before going exclusively midnight-only, though the engagement was broken up, not completely continuous.
In 1981, The UA Cinema Center became one of eight theaters in Los Angeles to host the premiere run of Shock Treatment on Friday and Saturday at midnight only, competing directly with The Rocky Horror Picture Show though the end of the year.
The UA Cinema Center's midnight show developed its own regular following and cast, called Another Slice. It ran weekends through 1983, when the theater was remodeled and brought back as a 3-plex. Although there is no official data to confirm, there is thought that a combination of narrowing audience attendance coupled with wear-and-tear to the theater contributed to the end of Rocky's run at the UA. Where once was a historic RHPS destination, is now a really big CVS drugstore.
External Links
Cinema Treasures [1]
