You’re never more than a few miles from a multiplex in Los Angeles, but it’s the century-old movie palaces, invite-only screening rooms and unconventional outdoor venues that making moviegoing just hit different here.
Of course, we’re not too shabby when it comes to looks either. Time Out just relaunched its list of the World’s 50 Most Beautiful Cinemas (Le Grand Rex in Paris took the top spot), and unsurprisingly, a handful of L.A.’s best movie theaters made the cut: the TCL Chinese Theatre (#15), the New Beverly Cinema (#18) and the Egyptian Theatre (#35). (Plus, we’ll give a nod to Catalina Island’s handsome Avalon Theater, which landed at #34.)
The Chinese Theatre’s inclusion should come as no surprise. It’s perhaps the most famous movie theater on the planet thanks to decades of glitzy red carpet openings—which also means you’ll have to endure throngs of tourists in its forecourt, home to concrete-set footprints and handprints from a century of stars.
But don’t let its touristy status and Walk of Fame locale scare you away: The nearly century-old pagoda-like exterior is iconic, and more importantly, the interior auditorium is absolutely exquisite. Radiant red seats and monumental golden columns turn any screening into an experience. And the picture quality! The IMAX screen inside the AMC at CityWalk just edges it out for size, but the Chinese Theatre’s screen is neck and neck when it comes to stellar projection quality.
Like the Chinese Theatre, the Egyptian Theatre—home of the first-ever Hollywood premiere—was hatched by showman Sid Grauman and designed by architecture firm Meyer & Holler. The 1922 cinema had seen a mixed bag of architectural changes over the years, but a renovation from new owner Netflix wrapped up in late 2023 and it’s absolutely beautiful (the streamer still shares programming duties with the American Cinematheque, the beloved not-for-profit film organization that first revived the space in the ’90s). Contemporary cladding and plaster inside have given way to desert block walls, the painted hieroglyphs in the courtyard have been touched up and the auditorium’s ceiling, adorned with a scarab beetle sunburst organ, looks better than ever.
Beauty isn’t just a measure of how ornate you can make a space, and that’s how the New Beverly Cinema landed on the list. Its Beverly Boulevard marquee is distinctive and the intimate interior neatly simple. But under the ownership of director Quentin Tarantino, who saved the storied venue from redevelopment in 2007, the New Bev has become the destination for rare prints of classics, dusted-off B-movies, grindhouse fare and reels straight from Tarantino’s personal collection. The folks behind the scenes here love 35mm as much as the loyal moviegoers love the magic of packing into a midnight showing, and that’s its own special brand of beauty.
Check out the full list of the 50 most beautiful cinemas in the world.