Kristen Stewart has swooped in to save Highland Park’s historic movie theater.
The Oscar nominated actress and filmmaker has purchased the Highland Theatre, located at 5604 N. Figueroa St, a 100-year-old venue that closed in spring 2024. She confirmed the news to Architectural Digest for a feature story and photo shoot that captured her posing above the marquee.
“I didn’t realize I was looking for a theater until this place came to my attention. Then it was like a gunshot went off and the race was on. I ran toward it with everything I had,” she told AD. “I’m fascinated by broken-down old theaters. I always want to see what mysteries they hold.”
Opened in 1925 and designed by Lewis Arthur Smith — an architect credited with designing the Vista Theatre in Los Feliz, El Portal in North Hollywood, and Rialto in Pasadena — the theater was among the Los Angeles casualties of a post-pandemic marketplace. Highland Theatre owner Dan Akarakian confirmed to the Los Angeles Times on March 1, 2024, that he was forced to shut his doors as business at his triplex never fully bounced back from pre-2020 times. The last films to show were the Dakota Johnson-starrer Madame Web, the Bob Marley biopic One Love and horror film Lisa Frankenstein.
For Stewart, she explained that the purchase and forthcoming renovation marks an opportunity “to make a space to gather and scheme and dream together” as a community.
“This project is about creating a new school and restructuring our processes, finding a better way forward. We want to make it a family affair, something for the community. It’s not just for pretentious Hollywood cinephiles. I see it as an antidote to all the corporate bullshit, a place that takes movie culture away from just buying and selling. I think there’s a huge desire and craving for what this kind of space can offer.”
The native Angeleno, who grew up in the San Fernando Valley with parents who both worked in the film business, plans to rehabilitate the theater’s elements. “There are so many beautiful details that need to be restored. There’s a way to bring the building back to life in a way that embraces its history but also brings something new to the neighborhood and something new to the whole LA film community,” she told the publication. “That’s the point — new ideas.”
It’s a concept she talked a lot about while making the promotional rounds for her feature directorial debut, The Chronology of Water. She has insisted that Hollywood must find a new way forward. “The narrow path that’s been forged has to be broadened, not by tokenized diversity but by doing things really differently,” she told AD. “We can’t keep making the same movie over and over again. And we can’t turn our backs on the people who are most in need.”
Stewart is not the only notable Hollywood name to pony up some cash to become a movie theater owner. She joins Quentin Tarantino who owns two historic movie theaters in Los Angeles including New Beverly Cinema and the Vista Theatre. In 2024, a coalition of filmmakers led by Jason Reitman teamed to purchase Westwood’s historic Village Theatre.
The group includes J.J. Abrams, Judd Apatow, Damien Chazelle, Chris Columbus, Ryan Coogler, Bradley Cooper, Alfonso Cuarón, Jonathan Dayton, Guillermo del Toro, Valerie Faris, Hannah Fidell, Alejandro González Iñárritu, James Gunn, Sian Heder, Rian Johnson, Gil Kenan, Karyn Kusama, Justin Lin, Phil Lord, David Lowery, Christopher McQuarrie, Chris Miller, Christopher Nolan, Alexander Payne, Todd Phillips, Gina Prince-Bythewood, Reitman, Jay Roach, Seth Rogen, Emma Seligman, Brad Silberling, Steven Spielberg, Emma Thomas, Denis Villeneuve, Lulu Wang and Chloé Zhao.
