Kristen Stewart buys historic LA movie theatre: ‘Something for the community’

“I didn’t realise I was looking for a theatre until this place came to my attention. Then it was like a gunshot went off and the race was on. I ran toward it with everything I had,” she said.

The theatre opened in 1925 and closed after nearly a century in operation. It was designed by Lewis Arthur Smith and began as a vaudeville and silent-film house before shifting to mainstream releases. It was eventually subdivided into a triplex in the 1980s.

Owner Dan Akarakian told the Los Angeles Times in March 2024 the theatre was unable to recover in the post-pandemic world and he was forced to shut it down.

It closed permanently on 29 February 2024, six days before its 99th anniversary, with the final films screened including Madame Web and Bob Marley: One Love.

Stewart said she intended to turn the theatre into a community space.

“It’s an opportunity to make a space to gather and scheme and dream together. This project is about creating a new school and restructuring our processes, finding a better way forward,” the actor said.

“We want to make it a family affair, something for the community. It's not just for pretentious Hollywood cinephiles,” she added.

“I see it as an antidote to all the corporate bulls***, a place that takes movie culture away from just buying and selling. I think there’s a huge desire and craving for what this kind of space can offer.”

The Spencer star acknowledged the challenge and scale of the restoration work. “There are so many beautiful details that need to be restored,” she said. “There’s a way to bring the building back to life in a way that embraces its history, but also brings something new to the neighbourhood and something new to the whole LA film community.”

Stewart’s purchase of the theatre puts her in the league of film figures who have taken an active role in preserving Los Angeles’ cinema heritage.

Quentin Tarantino bought the New Beverly Cinema in 2007 and the Vista Theatre in 2021, telling Deadline in 2014 he bought the former theatre to ensure it wouldn't get turned into a commercial multiplex and remain dedicated to film screenings.

In 2022, the Village Theatre in Westwood was bought by a group of investors that included Jason Reitman, Steven Spielberg, and Bradley Cooper after fears the site could be redeveloped.

Recently, while promoting her directorial debut The Chronology of Water, Stewart said “probably not” when asked if she thought she would stay in the US while Donald Trump was president.

“Reality is breaking completely under Trump,” the actor, 35, told The Sunday Times. “But we should take a page out of his book and create the reality we want to live in.”

She called Trump’s threat of tariffs on films made outside the US “terrifying” for the industry and said she “can’t work freely” in the US.

“But I don’t want to give up completely,” she added. “I’d like to make movies in Europe and then shove them down the throat of the American people.”