Old Fairfax Theater Set for Comeback

For some time, it has been common practice among frequent moviegoers to rate a movie by how much they are willing to pay to see it: full price, matinee discount, video rental or cable. The second-run movie house--a happy compromise in which one still gets to see the picture in a theater at a lower price--is falling by the wayside.

“It seems the discount theater, the ‘dollar house,’ is becoming a thing of the past,” said Paul Dergarabedian, president of box-office tracking firm Exhibitor Relations. “With many of the theater companies last year filing for Chapter 11, many of the older or obsolete theaters were cut from their inventories.”

Although a few remaining independent houses dot the city’s exhibition landscape, when Loew’s Cineplex Entertainment opted not to renew its lease on the three-screen theater at Beverly Boulevard and Fairfax Avenue, it effectively shuttered the last major second-run house in Los Angeles proper.

Happily, though, for audiences whose tastes run toward something other than the latest John Travolta thriller, one company’s discard has turned out to be another’s treasure.

Bob Laemmle, president of Laemmle Theaters, said his chain had no interest in operating a second-run house. So upon taking over the lease, Laemmle shifted into high gear to quickly renovate the theater, which had fallen into some disrepair, and turn it into a first-run art house. Laemmle plans to book it with independent and foreign-language films in conjunction with the company’s extremely successful Sunset 5, which is also in West Hollywood.

The Sunset 5 is very much in demand among distributors of specialized fare, he said. “We can’t get all the films that would like to play at the Sunset in there. So I see the Fairfax as a strong outlet with crossover potential, even if the most commercial films will always want to be at the Sunset. But sometimes there are more than five strong films out there.” The main theater at the Fairfax (which seats about 430 people) is larger than the biggest house at the Sunset.

Laemmle foresees possible situations in which individual films may be moved between the two theaters depending on demand, using the Fairfax as more than just a spillover or secondary theater.

Originally built in the 1930s as a single-screen venue and live theater (there’s still an extensive backstage area with high catwalks), the Fairfax was taken over by Cineplex in the mid-1980s and completely remodeled into a triplex. Although Cineplex initially ran it as a first-run house, eventually it became a destination for second-run films.

Second-run theaters have relied on higher-profile studio fare on which they could obtain more favorable film rental terms, because those titles have traditionally brought in more ticket sales than first-run art-house fare, but that has changed. More often than not these days, the films that have “legs” to remain in theaters longer come from the art-house sector of the business, as witnessed this year by the surprise staying power of such titles as “Memento” and “The Others.”

“Though it depends on the film,” Dergarabedian said, “it would seem a solid, first-run art-house film could do much better than a major studio film in the twilight of its release.”

Additionally, as distributors have tightened pay-per-view and home video windows (the amount of time between a film’s theatrical run and its ancillary life), the window for showing a film in second run has shortened as well.

At the Fairfax, renovations include new seating in all three auditoriums, with fewer rows in each auditorium to increase leg room, and the last few rows in each theater are now rocker seats. Although they will be retaining the same projection equipment, Laemmle will be upgrading the sound systems in the two smaller auditoriums (the main theater already featured Dolby digital sound).

The building itself has through the years retained many decorative flourishes from its original design. The free-standing ticket booth out front is a throwback to another era, as is the Art Deco ceiling in the lobby and the Deco glass fixture that dominates the ceiling in the main auditorium.

Overseeing the renovation process is Jay Reisbaum, Laemmle’s director of development, who has had only about 30 days to complete the job. The new marquee, for example, was due to be installed on Wednesday just before the theater’s private opening party on Thursday, opening to the public today.

Discussing the Fairfax theater, Reisbaum also addressed the benefits of taking over existing venues. “We’ve been involved in new construction before, and to develop a theater from scratch can be a five-to seven-year process. It would be practically impossible to build a theater like this today. For us to find a space like this in this location and be able to take it over is practically a dream come true.”