Hollywood's first major movie premiere was held here in 1922; ghost tours report that Sid Grauman's spirit still applauds unseen in the restored auditorium
6712 Hollywood Blvd, Hollywood, CA 90028
Research updated June 2026
Age
All Ages
Cost
$$
Film screening tickets required for interior access; check American Cinematheque website for current programming and pricing. Exterior courtyard visible from Hollywood Blvd.
Access
Wheelchair OK
Historic 1922 theater on Hollywood Blvd with flat courtyard entry. Theater interior has standard fixed seating. Contact venue for specific accessibility accommodations.
Equipment
Photos OK
Est. 1922 · Designed by Meyer & Holler for Sid Grauman · October 18, 1922: first Hollywood premiere — Robin Hood with Douglas Fairbanks · Egyptian Revival style; opened as Egyptomania peaked · 1994 Northridge earthquake damage; American Cinematheque restoration 1998 · 2020: Netflix acquisition
The Egyptian Theatre was Sid Grauman's second major Hollywood venue, following the Million Dollar Theatre downtown. Grauman partnered with C.E. Toberman on the project, commissioning the architect firm Meyer & Holler to design a theater in the Egyptian Revival style then becoming fashionable in the wake of early press coverage of the Howard Carter excavations. The Tutankhamun discovery was made in November 1922, just weeks after the theater opened — Grauman had correctly anticipated the wave.
The premiere of Robin Hood on October 18, 1922, with Douglas Fairbanks in attendance, established the Hollywood premiere as an event in its own right. The Egyptian's forecourt became the template: searchlights, costumed ushers, crowds behind barriers, photographers. The format Grauman developed here was transferred and amplified when he opened the Chinese Theatre in 1927.
The Egyptian operated as a first-run cinema through the 20th century, surviving the transition from silent film to sound, from black-and-white to color, from single-screen to multiplex competition. The January 1994 Northridge earthquake caused significant structural damage and the theater was closed. The American Cinematheque, a nonprofit film organization, negotiated a long-term lease and undertook a major restoration with public funding. The theater reopened in 1998 and has operated as a repertory and specialty cinema since.
Netflix acquired the theater in 2020 to use as a Los Angeles premiere venue and for its Netflix-branded film events, while the American Cinematheque continued programming.
Sources
The Egyptian's paranormal accounts center on Sid Grauman, who died in 1950 having spent three decades as the impresario of Hollywood's premiere experience. Grauman was known for his involvement in every detail of his theaters' operation — the costumed ushers, the forecourt ceremonies, the personal hosting of opening nights. The accounts that emerged after the 1998 restoration place him in the one space that still reflects his vision most directly.
The primary phenomenon reported is auditory: applause heard in an empty auditorium, or during a screening in spaces where no one is seated. The applause is not described as alarming but as specific — a single set of hands, from a consistent location. American Cinematheque staff have described this phenomenon, and ghost tour operators who include the Egyptian on Hollywood walking routes frame it as Grauman maintaining his role as appreciative host.
A secondary account involves a mischievous entity in the backstage and projection areas — unexplained movement of objects, doors that close without wind, a sense of being watched in the technical spaces. This category of account is common in working theaters and difficult to attribute specifically, but it has been consistent enough since the restoration to be included in Hollywood paranormal documentation.
The renovation's role in surfacing these accounts follows a pattern: the theater was sealed and deteriorating from 1994 to 1998, and the restoration reopened spaces that had been undisturbed for four years. Grauman's own association with the building's original identity gives the first set of accounts — the applause — a coherent, specific character.
Notable Entities
American Ghost Walks' Hollywood tour includes the Egyptian Theatre as a documented haunted stop, covering Sid Grauman's reported residual presence and the theater's history as the site of Hollywood's first major movie premiere.
The American Cinematheque programs film screenings, retrospectives, and special events at the Egyptian. Attending a screening gives access to the restored 1922 auditorium where staff have reported paranormal activity since the late-1990s renovation. Check the Cinematheque website for current schedule.
Every HauntBound history is researched from documented sources. We clearly separate verified historical fact from paranormal folklore.
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