Set your calendars: The Bay Theater, the long-shuttered legacy cinema at Palisades Village, is reopening on Friday.
The resurrection marks nearly two years after the 2025 wildfires ravaged the area. Alongside developer Rick Caruso, Skydance CEO David Ellison has championed the venue as something like a town square and a physical symbol of his commitment to theatrical exhibition (RIP the Paramount Decrees).
The theater is reopening just in time for the release of Paramount’s Ebenezer, the studio’s buzzy bet on Johnny Depp’s A-list rehabilitation positioning the actor for a potential Hollywood comeback. The cinema won’t just be showing Skydance titles either. Godzilla Minus Zero, You Can See Everything, Wild Horse Nine and The Cat in the Hat (Warner Bros. Pictures Animation) will also be playing over the weekend.
Paramount Pictures revealed the revival last month, announcing plans to bring first-run theatrical releases, classics and experiential events to the cinema. The location is operated by The Lot, a luxury dine-in theater chain. Ellison has called it a “place for the Pacific Palisades community to gather around the shared experience of cinema,” saying that the Bay is “woven into the fabric of this neighborhood.”
Don’t be surprised if the studio plans to make the Bay its central hub for screenings given Ellison’s proximity to the location.
Caruso has discussed how he envisioned Palisades Village as a more intimate space than his other megapopular properties, The Grove in Los Angeles or the Americana at Brand in Glendale. After the original Bay Theatre closed in 1978, the Pacific Palisades went roughly 40 years without a movie theater of its own, until Caruso revived the name as part of Palisades Village in 2018.
Each theater offers luxury seating — with adjustable foot, back and head rests — USB charging, personal dining tables with custom lighting and service buttons for in-seat ordering. The lobby features a full-service bar with a video wall.
The reopening is part of a broader revival of L.A.’s cinema scene amid this year’s blazing box office run. It includes Sony’s planned restoration of the Cinerama Dome and rehabilitation of the adjacent ArcLight Hollywood, Amazon’s lease of the Culver Theater and Netflix’s purchase of the Egyptian in Hollywood. The resurgence isn’t limited to blockbuster venues either. There’s the Jason Reitman-led return of the Village in Westwood, Quentin Tarantino’s takeover of the Vista in Los Feliz and Kristen Stewart’s resuscitations of the Highland Theatre.
