Old Pasadena’s six-screen theatre is coming back. LOOK Dine-In Cinemas is taking over the former iPic at One Colorado and will reopen the location in December, timed to what the industry is calling Dunesday: the December 19 opening of Dune: Part Three.
LOOK, founded by Studio Movie Grill pioneer Brian Schultz, currently operates seven theatres and 67 screens before adding Pasadena. The new venue will program a mix of studio wide releases, independent films and special screenings, and will also book corporate and community events.
Schultz said the company wasn’t willing to let the One Colorado cinema story end. “A local cinema is where a community comes together to laugh, cry, be inspired and share experiences,” he added.
The launch is built around a demand spike
Opening on the same weekend as Dune: Part Three is a scheduling choice, not a coincidence. A franchise release gives a relaunched venue immediate traffic, high per-screen attention and an easier local marketing story. For media buyers, event titles are when in-theatre inventory is most valuable.
The takeaway is simple: anchor a reopening or relaunch to a demand spike already on the calendar.
LA’s revival is getting crowded
LOOK Pasadena is one of several cinema redos online or pending around Los Angeles:
- The Village Theatre in Westwood, backed by the Village Directors Circle led by Jason Reitman, is set for a 2027 reopening with American Cinematheque as operator.
- Sony is planning to revive the Cinerama Dome, while Alamo Drafthouse handles the former 14-screen Arclight Hollywood.
- The Alex Theatre in Glendale returned to first-run films this summer for the first time in 35 years.
- The Bay Theatre in Pacific Palisades reopens Friday after the January 2025 wildfires.
$2.7 billion behind the screen
This is not a one-city story. Exhibitors overall have spent $2.7 billion on upgrades and new builds in the last two years, according to Cinema United’s latest cinema investment report. The money is going into premium seating, dine-in service, projection and heritage restorations.
For planners, that changes the type of inventory coming online. Dine-in and curated programming attract a higher-attention, experience-led audience rather than a commodity opening-weekend crowd. It also creates sponsorship surfaces: community events, corporate bookings and special programs that a standard multiplex does not offer.
What to do with the signal
- Track reopening dates and event-film weekends together when allocating local cinema budgets.
- Treat restored and dine-in screens as premium, not run-of-site, inventory.
- Watch the December opening and the 2027 revival wave for sponsorship and community-event openings.
Do not read a single December opening as proof of full recovery, and do not wait until the screens are announced; the buying conversation usually starts earlier.
Source: Deadline
