Grauman’s Chinese Gets New Owners

COMMENTS (7)

• Any indication that Elie Samaha’s association with Battlefield Earth – also implies that really the Scientologists just bought Grauman’s – but are they are trying to avoid negative press coverage at this point?

  Comment by hollywoodblvd_owned_by_scientology — Thursday April 28, 2011 @ 8:23pm PDT  Reply to this post

• bring back the ticket booth. refuse to book lousy movies there and lift the cinema hex this theater has struggled with for some time.
  this movie is one of the best theaters in town to see movies. reboot this theater in time for dark knight rises!

  Comment by movie — Thursday April 28, 2011 @ 9:39pm PDT  Reply to this post

• Elie Samaha? There goes the neighborhood …

  Comment by Uhhh... — Thursday April 28, 2011 @ 10:29pm PDT  Reply to this post

• During this recession, everyone in Los Angeles and the entertainment community keep a watchful eye on the very few landmarks we have left in this city. Recessions are when cities fall asleep at the switch and are looking for any and all ways to make money, and once prized properties to land owners become easily sellable in order to cover other debt. This is not the case here but even this much be watched closely. Los Angeles has a history of not taking care of its history. Look no further than the intersection of Sunset and La Brea, the horrid tract homes in Culver City, and the missing piece of the Fox backlot we’ll never get back thanks to 1960′s/70s bunkers – excuse me – condos that were built in its wake. Of course, there’s always the death star there to make up for losing such a large parcel of Hollywood history.

  Comment by HollywoodLandmarks — Thursday April 28, 2011 @ 10:43pm PDT  Reply to this post

• A free e-meter reading with every admission. Footprints of famous Scientol…. I can’t, I just can’t even let my mind consider this.

  Comment by thisisnotgoodnews — Thursday April 28, 2011 @ 11:27pm PDT  Reply to this post

• Congrats to Donald, and good luck.

  Comment by A Friend — Friday April 29, 2011 @ 10:10am PDT  Reply to this post

• Meet the new owner of this landmark:

  Fraud by Franchise Pictures

  Following the failure of Battlefield Earth and other films independently produced by Franchise Pictures, The Wall Street Journal reported that the FBI was probing “the question of whether some independent motion picture companies have vastly inflated the budget of films in an effort to scam investors”.[118] In December 2000 the German-based Intertainment AG filed a lawsuit alleging that Franchise Pictures had fraudulently inflated budgets in films including Battlefield Earth, which Intertainment had helped to finance.[119] Intertainment had agreed to pay 47% of the production costs of several films in exchange for European distribution rights, but ended up paying for between 60 and 90% of the costs instead. The company alleged that Franchise had defrauded it to the tune of over $75 million by systematically submitting “grossly fraudulent and inflated budgets”.[120]

  The case was heard before a jury in a Los Angeles federal courtroom in May–June 2004. The court heard testimony from Intertainment that according to Franchise’s bank records the real cost of Battlefield Earth was only $44 million, not the $75 million declared by Franchise. The remaining $31 million had been fraudulent “padding”. Intertainment’s head Barry Baeres told the court that he had only funded Battlefield Earth because it was packaged as a slate that included two more commercially attractive films, the Wesley Snipes vehicle The Art of War and the Bruce Willis comedy The Whole Nine Yards.[1] Baeres testified that “Mr. Samaha said, ‘If you want the other two pictures, you have to take Battlefield Earth — it’s called packaging’”. Baeres commented: “We would have been quite happy if he had killed [Battlefield Earth]“.[121]

  Intertainment won the case and was awarded $121.7 million in damages. Samaha himself was declared by the court to be personally liable for $77 million in damages.[4][122] The jury rejected Intertainment’s claims under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO) statute, which would have trebled the damages if Franchise had been convicted on that charge.[123] The judgment forced Franchise into bankruptcy a few months later.[4] The failure of the film was also reported to have led in 2002 to Travolta firing his manager Jonathan Krane, who had set up the deal with Franchise in the first place.[124]

  Comment by Joe Justice — Friday April 29, 2011 @ 2:11pm PDT  Reply to this post