After a few years of announcements, teases and setbacks, beloved video store and film nonprofit Vidiots is finally ready to debut its new home at a restored, 94-year-old Eagle Rock theater on June 1.
The Eagle Theatre, which has operated as everything from a vaudeville stage to an adult cinema over the past nine decades, will now screen new indie releases alongside repertory picks, classics and hard-to-find features seven days a week. You’ll be able to watch them all in a 271-seat auditorium equipped for both film (35mm and 16mm) and digital. That’s in addition to a beer and wine bar with some light bites, plus space for special events and educational workshops.
Of course, it wouldn’t be Vidiots without a video store, and that’s made the jump, too: The organization’s 50,000-strong DVD, BluRay and VHS collection, a fixture of its quirky Santa Monica shop from 1985 until 2017, will be open and available to rent.
(You can see an in-progress preview of the auditorium below.)
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“We’re overjoyed to finally see our dream of bringing Vidiots back to Los Angeles,” said Vidiots founders Patty Polinger and Cathy Tauber in a statement. “We could not have accomplished this incredible feat without the loyal and steadfast support of a community truly devoted to cinema and creating a space for new generations to be inspired and enlightened by the arts, and where they can fall in love with film as we have.”
Vidiots first closed its longtime Santa Monica home in 2017 and then popped up, in pint-sized form, inside Downtown L.A.’s Alamo Drafthouse in 2019. That same year, the Vidiots Foundation first announced its plans to fundraise and open in 2020. But, you know, then 2020 happened, so the project’s completion shifted back to 2022. A lawsuit over the theater’s beer and wine license pushed that date back yet again, but finally the Eagle Theatre has an official opening date.
You’ll find the 11,000-square-foot venue at 4884 Eagle Rock Boulevard, just up the road from an increasingly cool mix of food and drink spots, including Max City BBQ, Walt’s Bar and Capri Club. Ahead of the June 1 opening, Vidiots’ “Founding Members” and supporters will be invited to sneak preview events in May.
The announcement of the Eagle Theatre’s opening comes as welcome news for those who’ve been keeping an eye on L.A.’s historic movie theater renovation projects. The American Cinematheque-operated Egyptian Theatre is still undergoing renovations by new owner Netflix while the Vista Theatre has yet to debut its Quentin Tarantino-helmed makeover. And then there’s the Cinerama Dome, which closed in 2021, but has yet to reopen, despite a liquor license approval last year.