The Bruin Theater in Los Angeles’ Westwood Village neighborhood is expected to reopen in mid-October after Toronto-based exhibitor Rui Pereira signed a lease with the family that owns the building. Closed since July 2024, when Regency Theatres’ lease expired, the 670-seat single-screen cinema will return with first-run films, classics, premieres and special events. Pereira also plans to bring back its 35mm and 70mm projectors while upgrading the digital presentation. In other words, the Bruin is not being preserved merely as a handsome neon relic; its new operator intends to put it back to work.

Pereira, who has operated Toronto’s Kingsway Theatre for 18 years and previously ran the Humber Cinema, says the Bruin remains in remarkably good condition, including its seats and screen, while the sound system has received recent upgrades. “I want to keep the essence of the theater, I don’t want to erase its history or gloss it over,” he told Deadline. Longer-term plans could include adding two 15-seat screening rooms upstairs, and studios have already approached Pereira about premieres and private screenings that might bring audiences through the doors before the official reopening. Meanwhile, the marquee will begin earning its keep early with promotions for Warner Bros.’ “Practical Magic 2” and UCLA.

Designed by prolific cinema architect S. Charles Lee and opened on New Year’s Eve 1937, the Bruin was named for UCLA’s mascot and originally decorated in the university’s blue-and-gold colors. Its revival arrives as Jason Reitman’s Director’s Village across the street prepares for renovation and Sony and Alamo Drafthouse move forward with reopening Hollywood’s Cinerama Dome and former ArcLight complex in 2028. Los Angeles spent decades proving how efficiently it could close beloved movie houses; lately, it seems determined to run the experiment in reverse. The common strategy is telling: these venues are not trying to out-multiplex the multiplex. They are betting that distinctive architecture, analog presentation and event programming can make the building itself part of the attraction.