shopping center in
Glendale,
California The Forman family founded Pacific Theatres in 1946 and continued to own and operate the company through its Decurion Corporation through its closure in April 2021. The company had some 300 movie screens in California. Pacific also once operated many
drive-in theaters, including in the
Pacific Northwest region. They operated the last drive-in in
Los Angeles County, the Vineland Drive-In located in the
La Puente area. Pacific Theatre also owned the Valley 6 drive-in theatre in
Auburn, Washington, which was the last operating drive-in from the United Theatre chain that Pacific ran in the Northwest from the 1950s; it was closed at the end of the 2012 season. The company acquired many theaters in
Hollywood, California over the years, including
the Pantages in 1965,
Warner Theatre and
New View Theatre in 1968,
Vine Theatre in the 1970s, and
Holly Cinema in 1985. Pacific was also one of the first theaters to have Samsung Onyx screens, introduced in 2018. Pacific Theatres was active in real estate development through its Robertson Properties Group, which was originally formed to re-develop former Pacific drive-in theaters. Today Robertson Properties currently acquires and develops retail, office, and residential properties. Developments included theatres at
The Grove at Farmers Market in Los Angeles. The other 20 drive-ins in the Northwest that were owned by United Theatre, were redeveloped by Robertson Properties in the 1980s and early 1990s. In 2007, Reading International Inc purchased 15 theaters within the Pacific chain in California and
Hawaii, and on February 22, 2008, became
Reading Cinemas, with the exception of the Hawaiian theatres, which remained under the
Consolidated Theatres banner. On March 17, 2020, Pacific Theatres closed all of its theater locations, including ArcLight Cinemas, to comply with COVID-19 public health mandates. In March 2021, when COVID-19 restrictions were eased in Los Angeles County to allow movie theatres to reopen, all of the Pacific Theatres and ArcLight Cinemas locations notably remained closed. On April 12, 2021, Pacific Theatres announced that it would cease operations permanently, stating "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." On June 18, 2021, Pacific Theatres filed for
Chapter 7 bankruptcy. In December 2021, AMC Theatres also announced that they had acquired the lease to the former location at
Northridge Fashion Center in
Northridge, Los Angeles, which opened in July 2022. == References ==