Amazon is breaking more new industry ground by opening its first cinema, in Culver City, California, as the high-tech retailer and streaming entertainment giant embarks on a push into having its films shown in traditional movie theaters.
Amazon Studios, the TV and film production arm of Seattle-based Amazon.com, quietly opened The Culver Theater last week at 9500 Culver Blvd. in a shuttered ArcLight Cinemas building that spans about 41,000 square feet. The theater is across the street from the 104-year-old Culver Studios, where Amazon now occupies more than 530,000 square feet for film and TV production.
The company plans to spend more than $1 billion annually on the push for film releases in cinemas starting next year, according to Bloomberg. Amazon hasn't laid out any widespread theater-owning strategy, though the company has opened brick-and-mortar stores for other retail concepts across the United States in recent years.
Amazon has not formally announced the opening for the six-screen theater. CoStar News first reported in July that Amazon Studios had inked a 10-year lease at the property for a high-end motion picture theater, restaurant and bar and offices for its film production purposes.
While the high-tech company has been on the cutting edge of transforming the retail experience with its online shopping, Amazon is sticking to tradition when it comes to operating its theater. Inside The Culver, patrons are greeted by employees wearing Amazon Studios jackets and a display with show times, like in most cinemas. Moviegoers purchase tickets on digital kiosks using a touch screen, and a noon showing of "Devotion" cost $17.99.
The Culver Theater's website also advertises upcoming show times for "Avatar: The Way of Water," "Bones and All," "Top Gun: Maverick," "Good Night Oppy," "Nanny" and "Triangle of Sadness."
Food, Plush Seats
The theater offers tables and plush seats in its lobby along with a full bar of wine, beer and cocktails, all available before patrons need to buy a ticket. For food, The Culver Theater has movie theater staples such as popcorn, candy and soda, along with more substantial fare including nachos, chicken tenders and buffalo chicken sliders.
An attendant checked tickets using a phone. At the noon showing, four trailers for upcoming movies were shown before "Devotion" started playing.
A representative for Amazon Studios did not respond to a request to comment from CoStar News.
The theater is the latest retail concept Amazon has opened this year. Amazon also launched its 30,000-square-foot apparel store, Amazon Style, in the Americana at Brand mall in Glendale, California. The store offers men's and women's clothing, shoes and accessories.
That said, the e-commerce giant hasn't always stuck with the brick-and-mortar business. In March, Amazon closed 68 physical stores including its Amazon 4-star, Amazon Pop Up and Amazon Books locations. The move did not affect the company's Amazon Fresh grocery stores. Amazon has more than 40 Amazon Fresh stores in the U.S., according to Grocery Dive.
Movie theaters have struggled since the start of the pandemic, which popularized streaming movies and TV at home. However, roughly 835 million tickets are expected to be sold this year, exceeding the number of tickets sold in 2021 and 2020 combined, according to The Numbers, which tracks domestic movie data. That figure is still below 2019's 1.2 billion tickets sold.