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VENUE
PROFILE
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.
 The five-level theatre lobby is centered by
a grand spiral staircase with cherrywood balustrades,
topped by an oval, uplit silvery dome. Certain
lobby design elements were inspired by Michelangelo’s
Campodiglio in Rome and Busby Berkeley’s
choreography. Twenty-six spectacular images
of famous Oscar® winners including Grace
Kelly, Jack Nicholson, Marlon Brando, Halle
Berry and Julia Roberts are permanently displayed
on four lobby levels as photographic transparencies
on clear plexiglass hung in front of shimmering
beaded “silver screen” panels.
The exclusive George Eastman Room boasts the
display of an actual Oscar® statuette,
one of nine awarded to the Eastman Kodak Company
through the years for the company’s scientific
and technical achievements and contributions
to the industry.
 The audience chamber is highlighted by a silver-leafed “tiara”,
a striking, looping oval structure that both
supports and disguises an immense ceiling grid
for lighting. Reflective ribs from the tiara
extend down between the theatre’s box
seats, creating a continuous flow from wall
to ceiling. The chamber was designed to draw
attention to the action on the stage, as well
as to achieve the maximum intimacy between
audience and performers. It is appointed with
sumptuous details that give the space warmth
including cherrywood finishes and deep plum
upholstery, as well as a shimmering glow provided
by curtains of two shades of iridescent fabric
and a fine bronze mesh that stretches to the
top of the proscenium, which measures some
64 feet wide by 35 feet high. The main stage
area is one of the largest in the nation, at
120 feet wide and 75 feet deep.
Wolfgang Puck Catering and Events, owned by
celebrated chef Wolfgang Puck, is the exclusive
provider of food and beverage services for
Kodak Theatre, including front of house, backstage
and special private events that can be held
in the theatre lobbies and the George Eastman
Room.
 Guided theatre tours are offered seven days
a week, with rare production and performance
schedule exceptions, from 10:30 am to 2:30
pm, departing every 30 minutes. The walking
tour offers visitors architectural and historical
highlights of the world-renowned venue, as
well as a glimpse of the ultra glamorous side
of Kodak Theatre on Hollywood’s biggest
night – the Oscars®.
Kodak
Theatre is located within the Hollywood &
Highland Center, which consists of over 640,000
square feet of space featuring national, regional
and local retail tenants, a variety of restaurants,
several of Hollywood’s hottest nightclubs,
a six screen state-of-the-art cinema adjacent
to the world-famous Grauman’s Chinese
Theatre and the 640 room Hollywood Renaissance
Hotel & Spa. CIM Group, an integrated, full-service
real estate investor and operator based in Hollywood,
became the owner of Hollywood & Highland
Center in February 2004.
 CIM
Group is an integrated, full service real estate
investor with in-house acquisition, development,
finance, leasing and management capabilities.
CIM directs its efforts toward districts of
high population density, including the downtown
areas within large cities, smaller “main
street” districts within towns and suburban
cities, and other locations which lie within
the metropolitan areas of the country. The company’s
approach to urban development is to become involved
in a district on a multi-property basis so that
the beneficial effects of each property’s
improvements are compounded, resulting in a
dramatic enhancement of the overall qualities
of the district. Since its inception in 1994,
CIM Group has been a leading force in the creation
of great streets in the cities of Santa Monica,
San Diego, Pasadena, Brea and Hollywood.
 "Kodak, the world’s foremost imaging innovator, is committed to helping people better use meaningful images and information in their life and work. Consumers use Kodak’s system of digital and traditional products and services to take, print and share their pictures anytime, anywhere; Businesses effectively communicate with customers worldwide using Kodak solutions for prepress, conventional and digital printing and document imaging; and Creative Professionals rely on Kodak technology to uniquely tell their story through moving or still images.
To learn more, visit http://www.kodak.com and follow our blogs and more at http://www.kodak.com/go/followus."
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