El Capitan Theatre is a fully restored movie palace at 6838 Hollywood Boulevard in the Hollywood neighborhood in Los Angeles, California, United States. The theater and adjacent Hollywood Masonic Temple (now known as the El Capitan Entertainment Centre) are owned by The Walt Disney Company and serve as the venue for a majority of the Walt Disney Studios' film premieres. Toberman was involved in 36 projects while building the Max Factor Building (now the Hollywood Museum), Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel and the Hollywood Masonic Temple. With Sid Grauman, he opened the three themed theaters: Egyptian (1922), El Capitan (1926), and Chinese (1927).
Barker Bros. Furniture Emporium took up the rest of the building in the 1920s.
Hollywood Paramount
The building was remodeled in the modern style, with the decor covered with curtains and removing the box-seat balconies.
Disney and restoration
thumb|Confetti rains at the end of a show, 2008
Late in the 1980s, Disney purchased a controlling stake in one of Pacific Theatres' chains, leading to Disney's Buena Vista Theaters and Pacific renovating the El Capitan Theatre and the Crest by 1989. These theaters became Disney's flagship houses. They spent $14 million on a complete renovation of the Paramount, restoring much of the building's original decor as well as the theater's original name. El Capitan reopened in 1991 with the premiere of The Rocketeer. The 1992 National Preservation Honor Award from the National Trust for Historic Preservation was bestowed on the restorers of the theater.
In 1984, the Hollywood Boulevard Commercial and Entertainment District was added to the National Register of Historic Places, with El Capitan/Paramount listed as a contributing property in the district,
After the 1994 Northridge earthquake, the building's frame was compromised and the theater had been flooded by its sprinklers and was considered uninhabitable by building inspectors. The owner walked away from the theater leaving the building to its mortgage company, CUNA Mutual Group.
From the November 18, 1995, Toy Story premiere to January 1, 1996, Disney rented the Masonic Convention Hall, the next-door building, for Totally Toy Story, an instant theme park and a promotional event for the movie. In July 1998, Buena Vista Pictures Distribution purchased the convention hall to continue using it as a promotional venue. A Disney Store location opened next to the theater in the El Capitan Building in 1998.
The $3 million seismic retrofitting was finished in time for the June 21, 1996, premiere of The Hunchback of Notre Dame. The building's full restoration was completed in December 1997, which included the sign tower. The Hollywood Entertainment District, a self-taxing business improvement district, was formed for the properties from La Brea Avenue to McCadden Place on Hollywood Boulevard. The office space's first tenants were TrizecHahn Centers, builders of the 425,000-square-foot development on the other side of the boulevard.
CUNA Mutual, having leased the building to full capacity, placed the building up for sale in 2008 at a price of $31 million,
In November 2013, Ghirardelli Soda Fountain and Chocolate Shop co-located with the Disney Studio Store next to the theater in the El Capitan building.
On March 17, 2020, the theatre temporarily closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic in California. The theatre eventually reopened a year later with a reduced capacity of just 100 seats. The first film shown after its reopening was Raya and the Last Dragon.
Disney Parks opened a theme ride called Mickey & Minnie's Runaway Railway at Disneyland on January 27, 2023. The facade is meant to resemble a movie theater in Toontown called "El CapiTOON Theater" based on the El Capitan.
Features
The theater is built into a six-story office building built in the 1920s. The design featured a mixed interior by G. Albert Lansburgh. Next door is the adjacent Disney's Soda Fountain and Studio Store, where patrons can purchase ice cream themed to the film currently playing in the cinema next door. A wide variety of Disney and movie merchandise is available there.