A historic Westwood theater returned to the spotlight Friday.
For UCLA students, the Bruin Theater’s reopening offered more than a chance to watch a movie. It marked the return of a historic movie palace that first opened in 1937.
[Related: Bruin Theater to reopen in the fall after 2-year wait]
The theater reopened with screenings of “Wildwood,” which was also released Friday, and hosted showings at 7 p.m., 9:30 p.m. and 11:45 p.m. With tickets exclusively sold at the box office outside the theater, crowds converged on the sidewalks along the corner of Broxton and Weyburn. For fourth-year psychology student Evelyn Liu, attending a showing at the newly opened theater felt like a chance to connect with her identity as a Bruin during her final year at UCLA.
“It’s so local and so quintessential to Westwood,” Liu said. “It feels like I’m doing something special coming down here and looking at something on opening night.”
[Related: More than a movie: The Bruin Theater’s reopening sparks community in Westwood]
The Bruin Theater closed in 2024 along with the Fox Westwood Village Theater. The Fox – now known as the Directors Village – reopened temporarily this summer, hosting sold-out screenings of “The Odyssey” and star-studded premieres for films including Tom Cruise’s “Digger.” According to LA Magazine, Rui Pereira – a theater operator from Toronto – holds a 10-year lease on the Bruin Theater, which features new digital projectors along with vintage 35mm and 70mm ones. Pereira signed the lease in July.
Bruin Theater staff spent weeks painting pillars, cleaning the interior and restoring nearly century-old murals ahead of the theater’s reopening, said Dylan Perneel, a Bruin Theater staff member and a third-year neuroscience student.
“It’s really important to have spaces for people to go to hang out, to have shared experiences together,” Perneel said. “Movie theaters are a great example of an opportunity that provides that.”
Upon entering the foyer of the Bruin Theater, students traversed across patterned carpet and beige tiles. Many stopped to purchase popcorn and snacks from the sales counter where blue, yellow and white tile lined the walls.
Lyric Jones, a second-year psychobiology student, said she had been following the reopening of the Bruin Theater was excited to watch “Wildwood,” LAIKA’s highly anticipated stop-motion film. Jones said the theater’s history was one of the factors that drew her to UCLA.
“Independent cinema is important,” Jones said. “It’s way more of a community here. … It’s actually like walking in the footsteps of people that have made such an impact in LA.”
Jones attended the 7 p.m. screening of “Wildwood” with her friend Preston Lin. Lin, a second-year mechanical engineering student, said the proximity of the Bruin Theater to campus helps make moviegoing more accessible to students. He added that he and his friends previously had to journey to Century City by bus to watch a film.
The Bruin Theater is about a 20-minute walk for students living on the Hill. The bus ride to the AMC at Century City takes around 45 minutes and involves transferring lines.
Watching a movie at the Bruin Theater is cheaper than going to the Century City AMC, said Ethan Ngo, a third-year design media arts student who attended the Friday showing. Discounted student tickets at the Bruin Theater were $15 for “Wildwood,” while tickets cost more than $20 for the movie at the Century City AMC.
Although theaters like AMC offer an enjoyable moviegoing experience, the experience of watching a movie in a small single-screen theater, as opposed to a multiplex, is valuable to viewers, said fourth-year English student Matthew Gilliam. Like other attendees at the 7 p.m. screening, Gilliam said he learned about the reopening through Instagram. While he added that it was too early to see the community impact the theater would have, he said the reopening left him optimistic for the future – especially as someone who enjoys learning about film history.
Reopening the Bruin Theater is an important step in the effort to bring more business to Westwood Village, said Michael Russell, the executive director of the Westwood Village Improvement Association.
Russell said he remembers visiting the Bruin Theater as a child to see films such as “Batman” and eating dinner, getting Diddy Riese ice cream or going to the arcade after the movie. Now, he looks forward to bringing his son to see movies at the Bruin Theater for the same experience, he added.
Alon Ziv, a UCLA alumnus who attended a screening, said he remembers the Bruin Theater being full on weekends when he was a student. He added that he is excited to attend late-night showings to bond with other moviegoers again.
As the Bruin Theater begins welcoming patrons back, students’ first impressions offer a glimpse into the entertainment destination steps from campus. The theater plans to host its second showing – “Fjord,” released Oct. 9 – from Friday to Nov. 5 after its run of “Wildwood” wraps the day before.
“This is a good way to show up for your community,” Gilliam said. “This is part of the UCLA community, and I hope over time it becomes a core part of the UCLA student experience.”
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