Enjoy your old-school Oscars while you can because, three years from now, everything about them is going to be different.
This week, news broke that in 2029, the Academy Awards will be changing venues, from the Dolby Theater on Hollywood Blvd. to the (currently named) Peacock Theater downtown. The move coincides with last year’s news that, in that same year, the show will be broadcast through YouTube instead of ABC.
The broadcast moving to YouTube is one thing. The physical event moving from the center of Hollywood, mere feet from the world-famous TCL Chinese Theater and on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, is another. The new theater is part of LA Live, a largely commercial area centered around Crypto.com Arena, the home of the Los Angeles Lakers, Kings, and Sparks. It’s only about eight miles away, but, in Los Angeles, it might as well be a million.
I’m a Los Angeles resident, and the Oscars being at the Dolby just made sense. Sure, they’d only been there since 2002, but the entire area was built around it and basically meant for it. Pillars up and down the corridors had spaces to honor Oscar-winners going decades into the future. Tourists could take photos where the stars walk the red carpet and then get photos with their hands in their handprints and with their stars on the street. Basically, for better or worse, the Oscars were held in the Times Square of Los Angeles. The most Hollywood place in Hollywood.
Downtown at LA Live simply doesn’t have that same reverence. Maybe when there’s a big event at the nearby Crypto.com Arena, things can be electric. But on a normal day, it’s just chain restaurants and a movie theater. Plus, there’s not much else to do in the immediate area, outside of big events.
The news also revealed that the Peacock will be undergoing significant technical upgrades to help accommodate the event. And the space has several thousand more seats than the Dolby (about 3,400 in the Dolby to about 7,100 in the Peacock), so that will up the energy (and access) considerably. So it’s not all bad. But it’s just a shocking turn of events, bucking against tradition.
However, the move does seemingly give the next two Oscars, in 2027 and 2028, a bit more excitement. It’s the last two times they’ll be at this place where history was made, time and time again. But, come 2029, it’s a whole new awards show.
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