As movie theaters begin reopening in California, the Pacific Theaters Lakewood Center 16 near the Lakewood Center is set to close permanently as announced by its parent company, The Decurion Corporation, on Monday.
The company website posted a statement on Monday stating, “After shutting our doors more than a year ago, today we must share the difficult and sad news that Pacific will not be reopening its ArcLight Cinemas and Pacific Theatres locations.”
The news of permanent closures coincides with the reopening of other movie theater chains such as Regal and AMC.
“This was not the outcome anyone wanted, but despite a huge effort that exhausted all potential options, the company does not have a viable way forward,” the company added.
The Lakewood Center 16 opened its doors on January 17, 1968 and was in operation until March of last year.
Being a popular theater for surrounding cities in the 80s, local residents shared their memories in local Facebook groups of going to the Lakewood Center 16 and seeing classic films like Alien, The Empire Strikes Back and The Raiders of the Lost Ark.
Jason Ward, a local and Star Wars enthusiast, recalled going to that theater growing up and it being an important theater throughout his life.
“I’ve seen every Star Wars movie there and I can trace every important movie (I’ve seen) to that theater … It was the best local theater you can go to and it’s where I met all my movie friends locally,” said Ward.
According to the novel Blockbuster How Hollywood Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Summer written by Tom Shone, Steven Spielberg test screened his final cut of Jaws at the Lakewood Center 16 on March 28, 1975.
A test screen is a preview of a movie before it releases to the public and allows the audience to react and give their feedback on it.
Ward added, “It’s nostalgia. There are so many memories that are from that specific theater, it’s just not going to be the same going to a different theater.”
The movie theater industry has been devastated by the pandemic as on demand entertainment has risen in popularity because of stay at home orders set last year.
According to a report conducted by Antenna Analytics, in 2020 the U.S streaming market grew 37% in subscriptions from the previous year.
Movie studios now recognized a profitable market for getting new movies out to viewers making them available to watch on their respected streaming service.
New movies such as Godzilla vs Kong and Raya and the Last Dragon are titles recently released simultaneously with theatrical releases giving the viewer new options to watch them.
Brett Tomberlin, producer of the Queen Mary movie set to film in Long Beach doesn’t see a hopeful future for smaller owned theaters to survive the next five years.
Tomberlin said, “Out of the 5000 movie theaters that are out there, I personally think that in the next five years it’ll be around 3000-3500 at most. I think it’ll be cut down by a third.”
The beloved Cinerama Dome in Hollywood is set to close permanently with the rest of the chain theaters.
“The biggest problem with theaters moving forward is you’re basically going to a movie theater for nostalgia and wanting to experience a movie with fellow human beings,” said Tomberlin.
In the meantime of theaters reopening in surrounding cities, the city of Lakewood announced a Drive-In Movies at the Mall event that’ll be a drive-in movie experience in the parking lot of the Lakewood Center Mall.