The Bay Theater, a five-screen dine-in cinema in Pacific Palisades' Palisades Village, has been closed since the January 2025 Palisades fire swept through the neighborhood. Paramount Pictures has taken over the theater’s lease and plans to reopen it later this year, adding a new venue to the shopping center as it resumes operations.
Plans include state-of-the-art projection systems and in-seat food and drink service, according to the Los Angeles Times. The theater is expected to show first-run movies from all studios, and The Lot, a La Jolla-based luxury dine-in theater chain with four California locations, will operate it.
Palisades Village is owned by developer Rick Caruso, founder and executive chairman of real estate firm Caruso. Caruso declined to disclose the lease terms beyond describing the agreement as long-term; Paramount also declined to say how much it plans to invest in the theater, according to the Times.
The Theater’s History in the Palisades
Netflix held the lease beginning in 2021, using the venue for special events, classic films and screenings of its own theatrical releases. Caruso praised Netflix and chief executive Ted Sarandos for their stewardship of the theater. Netflix has also operated other historic venues, including Hollywood's Egyptian Theatre and New York's Paris Theater, as NPR has reported.
The discussion about the theater’s future began over lunch in 2025 between Caruso and David Ellison, then chief executive of Skydance, who was working to acquire Paramount. Paramount completed its acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery about a week before October 13, 2026, and the combined company took the Skydance name after the deal closed. Ellison said Paramount and Caruso are proud to restore the Bay as a community gathering place.
The Theater’s Return and the Village’s Recovery
Caruso has presented the theater’s return as part of Pacific Palisades’ recovery from the fire. Palisades Village reopened in August 2026 after Caruso’s firm spent more than $100 million on renovations, including infrastructure work to address potential contaminants left by the blaze. Caruso has described the theater’s comeback as a positive signal for Los Angeles and said the city can recover from a major disaster and rebound beyond its prior state.
Adolfo Fastlicht, founder and chief executive of The Lot, said the company looks forward to welcoming the Pacific Palisades community back to the movies. The current Bay Theater building opened in late 2018 as a Cinépolis dine-in cinema. It is near, but not on, the site of the original Bay Theatre, which closed in 1978, according to Los Angeles Theatres.
The Original Bay Theatre
The current cinema is a separate venue from the original Bay Theatre. Deadline reported that the original Pacific Palisades theater was designed in 1948 with a marquee by S. Charles Lee, closed in 1978 and was later converted into a hardware store: Deadline.
Programming Plans and the Rules on Theater Ownership
The programming plan includes first-run releases as well as classic films, curated events and special screenings, according to TheWrap, which also reported that the move is Paramount’s first purchase of a movie theater. No reopening date has been set; TheWrap reported that one would be announced in the coming weeks.
The deal also comes after the end of rules that had barred studios from owning theaters for decades. The Los Angeles Times reported that a federal judge terminated the Paramount consent decrees in 2020.
Separately, Paramount and Warner Bros. Discovery reached a settlement agreement with 12 state attorneys general over antitrust claims tied to their merger, under which the combined company must release at least 30 films a year. Ellison appeared at CinemaCon earlier in 2026 as the deal moved toward completion. For Pacific Palisades residents, the more immediate marker of progress will be simpler: seeing the Bay Theater's doors open again.
