Grauman's Egyptian Theatre

Origins , 1926 The Egyptian was built by showman Sid Grauman, who previously opened the Million Dollar Theater and later designed Grauman's Chinese, and Charles E. Toberman, who later built the El Capitan and Chinese. This theater, designed with an Egyptian theme to capitalize on the Egyptomania that was occurring at the time, took 18 months to construct at a cost of $800,000 . Architects Meyer & Holler designed the building and it was constructed by the Milwaukee Building Company, a Meyer & Holler affiliate. The Egyptian was the site of world's first film premiere, Douglas Fairbanks in Robin Hood, in 1922. Additional premieres that took place in this theater in the 1920s include The Ten Commandments, The Gold Rush, and many more. The theater sat 1,771. and following its opening, Fox West Coast Theaters operated the Egyptian as a re-run house. despite this, the theater fell into disrepair and closed in 1992. The Los Angeles Community Redevelopment Agency bought the theater for $1.7 million the following year, the same year the theater was designated a Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument. Revitalization The Egyptian underwent two large restoration efforts, the first by the American Cinematheque in the late 1990s and the second by Netflix in the early 2020s. The entire process is considered a "case study in reversibility" by Los Angeles City staff. American Cinematheque In 1996, the Los Angeles Community Redevelopment Agency sold the Egyptian to the American Cinematheque for a nominal $1, with the provision that the building be restored to its original grandeur and reopened as a movie theater. which was done by architecture and design studio Hodgetts + Fung. The Egyptian theater reopened on December 4, 1998. The restored theater, named after Lloyd Rigler, sat 616 patrons, while a second theater named after Steven Spielberg was also added; it sat 78. The forecourt was also restored, with palm trees and planters added. In 2000, the restoration project won the National Preservation Award from the National Trust for Historic Preservation. Netflix In 2019, Netflix announced plans to purchase the Egyptian for use as a special events venue Netflix also announced that the American Cinematheque would still hold events on weekends. A year later, Netflix announced that they would acquire the theater and invest in renovations. The theater's purchase price was $14.4 million and the renovations totaled more than $70 million . The Egyptian was renovated and restored beginning in 2020 until 2023. The restoration included the removal of elements added during the 1990s restoration, such as the main theater's balcony section and acoustic panels, the entire second theater, and the palm trees and planters in the forecourt. Modern lighting and sound upgrades were also added, and the theater's capacity was reduced to 516. Netflix reopened the theater on November 9, 2023 with a screening of The Killer followed by a Q&A session with director David Fincher. Netflix also announced the release of the documentary short Temple of Film: 100 Years of the Egyptian Theatre, which features interviews from Guillermo del Toro, Rian Johnson, Lynette Howell Taylor, Autumn Durald Arkapaw and the theater's restoration architect Peyton Hall. == Architecture and design ==

The Egyptian features a programmatic Egyptian Revival design; The building's exterior walls contain Egyptian-style paintings and hieroglyphs. The front courtyard, in size, was designed to host red-carpet ceremonies and capitalize on Southern California's sunny weather. Storefronts along the east side of the courtyard had an "Oriental motif" and sold imports, while the Pig 'n Whistle was located west and included a side entrance direct from the restaurant to the courtyard. Originally, the courtyard served as the theater's entrance hall, as the front doors formerly opened directly into the auditorium. The four columns that mark the theater's main entrance are wide and rise . Inside, the theater originally contained Sphinx sculptures, singer's boxes, an orchestra pit, and a proscenium arch that featured a winged scarab surmounted by a medallion and snakes at its center. The theater's centerpiece, however, was its massive stylized sunburst device on the ceiling, which doubled as an organ grille. Several of these features, including the sculptures and orchestra pit, were removed when the theater transitioned to sound, and much of the proscenium arch was demolished to make room for an enlarged screen when the theater upgraded to Todd-AO. File:Line up at egyptian.jpg|Theater entrance File: Egyptian Theatre Hollywood 7.jpg|Exterior doorway File: Egyptian Theatre Hollywood 5.jpg|Exterior wall designs File: Egyptian Theatre Hollywood 6.jpg|Box office File:Egyptian ceiling lobby.jpg|Lobby ceiling File: Clone Wars screening - the ceiling of the Egyptian (5240103135).jpg|Theater ceiling ==Influence==

The layout, design, and name of Grauman's Egyptian was emulated by several movie palaces across North America, including those in Bala Cynwyd, Boise, Concord, Coos Bay, DeKalb, Delta, El Dorado, Hanover, Montreal, Ogden, Park City, Pasadena, and Seattle. In media The Egyptian was featured in episode 712 of Visiting... with Huell Howser. It also appears in Jonathan Franzen's 2021 novel Crossroads and is a location in the 2011 video game L.A. Noire. ==See also==