Los Angeles Theatre, California

The Los Angeles Theatre is one of twelve large and ornate movie palaces along Broadway, in downtown LA, that sit in various states of reuse and disuse. In the 1930's these elaborate baroque theaters hosted the premieres and galas of that era's Hollywood. Today, instead of screening films, many of them are now used in the creation of films. The Los Angeles Theatre is the busiest of them, hosting productions for over a hundred days on many years. It was the last of the great baroque movie palaces built along Broadway, constructed during the depression at a cost of over $1 million, and finished in time to host the premiere of Charlie Chaplin's City Lights in 1931. It finally closed as a movie theater in 1994, and has been used as a location since 1995, after a partial restoration by its new owners. The Los Angeles Theatre usually plays a theater in the productions which are shot there, or is used for its elegant lobby and reception areas. At the beginning of End of Days, for example, the lobby can be seen serving as a sort of Vatican interior. Other films that have used the theater include Batman Forever, Alien Nation, Houdini, The Artist, The Prestige, and Escape from LA. For Man on the Moon, the Milos Foreman film starring Jim Carrey as Andy Kaufman, the Los Angeles Theatre played Carnegie Hall.