Kristen Stewart Takes Highland Park: The Fight to Resurrect Los Angeles Single Screens

Single-screen exhibition in Los Angeles is transitioning from corporate balance sheets to direct creative patronage. Kristen Stewart has acquired the historic Highland Theatre on Figueroa Street, stepping in to restore a shuttered century-old movie palace that went dark in February 2024. The move signals a broader defensive push across American cinema hubs, where prominent creatives are deploying their own production capital to prevent classic neighborhood screening rooms from becoming upscale retail storefronts.

A Century on Figueroa Street

The Highland Theatre first opened its doors on March 2, 1925, launching with a screening of Lady of the Night and an appearance by silent-era star Norma Shearer. Built by architect Lewis A. Smith, the venue served Northeast Los Angeles for nearly a century, transitioning through various exhibition eras from grand silent palace to second-run neighborhood triplex. Designated as Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument #549 in 1991, the venue survived decades of shifting theatrical models before rising operating costs and post-pandemic attendance pressures shuttered its doors on Leap Day 2024.

Stewart, who quietly acquired the parcel in mid-2025 before confirming the project publicly, faces a steep physical and logistical path. The structural reality of century-old exhibition spaces demands aggressive infrastructure upgrades, ranging from roof stabilization and seismic retrofitting to modern projection plumbing and HVAC overhauls. As Stewart noted to the Los Angeles Times, the building requires urgent structural remediation before it can operate safely as a functional communal arts space.

The Filmmaker-Owner Model

Stewart is not operating in a vacuum. She joins a distinct lineage of filmmakers who view brick-and-mortar cinema architecture as essential cultural infrastructure rather than speculative real estate. Quentin Tarantino preserved both the New Beverly Cinema and the Vista Theatre; Jason Reitman led a collective of high-profile directors to acquire Westwood's Village Theatre; and Steven Spielberg joined a consortium to preserve classic neighborhood rooms across the city. According to reporting on exhibition trends from The Hollywood Reporter, independent filmmaker-backed cinemas have emerged as an alternative safety net for repertory film culture in an era dominated by consolidated multiplex chains.

For Stewart, the venue represents an expansion of her creative orbit alongside her work as a director. Having developed her feature directorial debut The Chronology of Water, the actor and filmmaker is building a physical platform designed around experimental programming, local community events, and repertory screenings. Unlike commercial cinema developers who depend on heavy concession markups and first-run studio blockbusters, boutique auteur-backed theaters often prioritize 35mm archival projection, lower barrier-to-entry ticketing, and neighborhood-first community curation.

The financial math of independent theatrical exhibition remains brutal, but the strategic value of these spaces has never been clearer. Restoring a damaged, century-old venue in a rapidly gentrifying corridor like Highland Park requires millions in upfront rehabilitation before a single ticket is sold. By buying the deed outright, Stewart guarantees that the space remains a communal temple for cinema culture rather than another casualty of Los Angeles real estate speculation.

Related reading: The American Cinema.