Los Angeles Culture: Kodak Theatre is the crown jewel of the Hollywood & Highland Center retail, dining and entertainment complex located in the heart of historic Hollywood. The 3,332 seat theatre opened in November 2001 and soon thereafter became known to more than one billion people across the globe as the first permanent home of the Academy Awards®.
Built at a cost of $94 million, Kodak Theatre was designed by the internationally-renowned Rockwell Group to be as glamorous as its onstage artists and celebrity guests, yet capable of serving the enormous technical needs of a live worldwide television broadcast on Oscar® night. The naming of Kodak Theatre, in a 20-year marketing partnership with Eastman Kodak Co., was one of the most significant non-sports corporate sponsorships in history. Kodak's prominence and long-standing connection to the film industry in Hollywood made the relationship a natural. In fact, for the 78th consecutive year, ever since the inception of the Academy Awards, Best Picture was produced on Kodak film.
As a first class live entertainment venue, Kodak Theatre has hosted a range of prestigious artists and events including Alicia Keys, Celine Dion, Prince, Elvis Costello, Barry Manilow, Stevie Wonder, Harry Connick, Jr., Melissa Etheridge, Dixie Chicks, Tyler Perry, American Ballet Theatre and various touring Broadway productions.
Notable television and awards events at Kodak Theatre have included the American Idol finals, AFI Lifetime Achievement Awards to Tom Hanks, Meryl Streep, and George Lucas, Daytime Emmy Awards, ESPY Awards and BET Awards.
For the theatergoer, the Kodak Theatre experience begins on Hollywood Boulevard, where a towering portal, designed by Rockwell, serves as the grand entrance to the theatre, which is
set back from the street. A two-story Awards Walk, featuring backlit glass plaques for each Best Picture Oscar® winner on a series of limestone portals, leads up a sweeping staircase with
red mosaic tile to the main entrance.
Eric Rosen lives in Los Angeles and writes about food, wine, travel and adventure... usually in some combination of the four. He regularly contributes to Los Angeles...
