Kodak Theatre

Kodak Theatre, located in Los Angles is the abode of the world-famous Oscar Awards. The theatre has a capacity of 3,332 and was opened in November 2001. It is located within the Hollywood & Highland Centerit. Soon after its establishment, Kodak Theatre became the popular as the first permanent home of the Academy Awards. The theater was built at an expense of $94 million. The designing of the Kodak Theatre was assigned to the internationally renowned 'Rockwell Group'. The designer has given it a classy touch, making it as glamorous as its onstage artists and celebrity guests. However, it is also proficient enough to serve the enormous technical requirements of a live worldwide television broadcast, on Oscar night.

The basic reason behind the name of Kodak Theatre was the 20-year marketing partnership of Eastman Kodak Company with the Motion Picture Industry. It is considered to be one of the most significant non-sports corporate sponsorships in history. Since the inception of the theatre and till the 78th Academy Award ceremony, the Best Picture was produced on Kodak film. Kodak Theatre is built in an extensive area of over 640,000 square feet, featuring national, regional and local retail tenants, a variety of restaurants, several of Hollywood’s hottest nightclubs and a six-screen high-tech cinema, adjoining the world-famous Grauman’s Chinese Theatre. Other than that, it houses a 640-room Hollywood Renaissance Hotel & Spa.

Kodak Theater has a magnificently-designed interior, with a five-level theatre lobby. It is centered by an impressive spiral staircase, with cherrywood railings, topped by an elliptical, uplift silvery dome. To a certain level, the lobby design fundamentals were inspired by Michelangelo’s Campodiglio in Rome and Busby Berkeley’s choreography. Approximately twenty-six stunning images of famous Oscar winners are permanently displayed on four entrance levels of the theatre, as picturesque transparencies, on clear plexiglass hung in front of gleaming beaded “silver screen” panels. George Eastman Room exclusively brags off for the display of a real Oscar statuette, one among the eight awarded to the Eastman Kodak Company through the years, for the company’s scientific and technical attainments and service to the industry.

The main stage area of Kodak Theater is one of the largest in the US, measuring 120 feet wide and 75 feet deep. The audience hall is decorated by a silver-leafed “tiara”, an arresting, looping oval structure that sustains and disguises an immense ceiling trellis for lighting. Reflective ribs from the crown extend down between the theatre’s box seats, creating a continuous flow from wall to ceiling. This chamber was especially built to divert the attention to the action on the stage and attain utmost intimacy between audience and performers. It is allotted extravagant details, like cherrywood finishes and deep plum upholstery, which give the space warmth. Curtains of two shades, in iridescent fabric, and a fine bronze mesh that stretches to the top of the proscenium (64 feet wide by 35 feet high) endows it with a shimmering glow.