The Egyptian Theatre in Hollywood turned 100 last year — and now the venue is ready for its closeup. Netflix said today that the storied movie palace and birthplace of the red carpet will reopen next month after a three-year renovation and retrofit.
The streamer acquired the Egyptian in 2020 and partnered with the American Cinematheque on a restoration that harks back to the landmark hall’s Roaring Twenties glory. The Egyptian’s grand reopening will be a November 9 screening of David Fincher‘s The Killer, starring Michael Fassbender, followed by a Q&A with the filmmaker.
Netflix today also revealed a November 9 release the documentary short Temple of Film: 100 Years of the Egyptian Theatre. Directed by Angus Wall, the film includes interviews with Guillermo del Toro, Rian Johnson, Lynette Howell Taylor, Autumn Durald Arkapaw and the theater’s restoration architect Peyton Hall.
A fixture on Hollywood Boulevard since Hollywood’s Golden Age, the Egyptian Theatre hosted the world’s first movie premiere, for the Douglas Fairbanks swashbuckler Robin Hood in 1922. It also held premieres for such silent-era classics as Cecil B. DeMille’s The Ten Commandments (1923), Charlie Chaplin’s The Gold Rush (1925) and the John Barrymore-Mary Astor pic Don Juan (1926).
The catastrophic 1994 Northridge Earthquake badly damaged the Egyptian and left it unsuitable for use. In 1996, as part of the Hollywood Revitalization project, the city sold the venue to the American Cinematheque, with the stipulation that the nonprofit cultural arts organization would raise the extensive funds to restore the hall and showcase the organization’s public film programming.
The Egyptian reopened in 1998 with a screening of DeMille’s The Ten Commandments.
Other programming set for the renovated Egyptian is The Ultra Cinematheque 70 Fest 2023, presented by the American Cinematheque from November 10-21; Bradley Cooper’s Maestro, the Leonard Bernstein biopic he directed and stars in opposite Carey Mulligan, from November 22-December 7; and The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar and Other Short Films by Wes Anderson, which spotlights the filmmaker’s latest pic and some of his favorite one-reelers from 1995-2021.
During the Covid lockdown, the pop-up the Arena Cinelounge Drive-In opened on Las Palmas Avenue behind the Egyptian.
