Nearly two years after the devastating Palisades fire, the Bay Theater is finally reopening its doors.
Under the new management of Skydance’s Paramount Pictures, the Pacific Palisades movie theater will start screening movies on Friday, according to a press release on Tuesday. Opening programming will feature new first-run releases including “Ebenezer,” “The Cat in the Hat,” “Wild Horse Nine,” “You Can See Everything” and “Godzilla Minus Zero.”
The theater, located in the Palisades Village shopping center, has been closed since the January 2025 Palisades fire.
Operated by La Jolla-based luxury chain The Lot, the five-auditorium multiplex features new laser projection, immersive surround sound and adjustable seating equipped with personal dining tables and service buttons.
Beyond first-run studio releases, the theater’s lineup will mix nostalgic classics withcurated programming for the local community.
“The comeback of this movie theater is a great signal for all of L.A.,” said Rick Caruso, whose company owns the Palisades Village shopping center, said in a previous interview. “Los Angeles is resilient, and we’re going to show the country that Los Angeles can bounce back from a terrible, terrible disaster, and the comeback is going to be much greater than the setback.”
The Palisades Village reopened in August after more than $100 million in renovations, including major infrastructure work. The upscale outdoor mall survived the Palisades fire, but needed refurbishment to eliminate any potential contaminants from the blaze.
The Bay Theater was previously leased by Netflix, which took it over in 2021. The company used the theater to host special events, screen classic films and showcase its own original theatrical movies.
Skydance’s Paramount Pictures took over the theater’s long-term lease last month.
The reopening arrives on the heels of Skydance‘s $111 billion acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery — a massive transaction that has Hollywood’s newly renamed media giant working to trim $6 billion in expenses while managing mandatory slate quotas.
“Together with Caruso, we are proud to help bring the Bay back to life as a place for the Pacific Palisades community to gather around the shared experience of cinema,” Ellison previously said in a statement to The Times. “This theater has always meant more than movies alone — it’s woven into the fabric of this neighborhood, and helping restore it is a privilege.”
L.A. Times staff writer Samantha Masunaga and Meg James contributed to this report.
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