It’s “THE END” for the Laemmle Claremont 5.
After 19 years of operation, the final screenings took place Thursday night. The five-screen theater downtown was sold to Regency Theatres.
Its promised second act is a pleasant surprise. In May, after an overhaul to add recliners, tables and more food options, the theater will reopen as Regency Directors Cut Cinemas, which according to a Regency press release “will showcase the best in independent and foreign films along with select Hollywood fare.”
That sounds blessedly similar to a Laemmle. Regency has a Directors Cut Cinema in Laguna Niguel and the movie lineup this week — including “Hamnet,” “H is for Hawk,” “28 Years Later: The Bone Temple” and “Song Sung Blue” — was practically a mirror image of the Claremont 5.
Well, we’ll come back to all that. Today I want to say farewell to the Claremont 5.
Speaking as a Claremont resident, Laemmle’s arrival in 2007, nearly three decades after the town’s previous theater closed, was hotly anticipated. In the cultural desert of the Inland Empire, local cinema lovers had to drive 30 minutes west to Pasadena, or farther, to see movies out of the mainstream.
The Claremont 5 showed all sorts of movies: Oscar-type dramas, foreign films, documentaries, popcorn movies and family fare. It was a balancing act, one difficult to pull off to everyone’s satisfaction.
Cineasts wished there were more indie movies. But local audiences often didn’t show up to support the highbrow films they claimed they wanted.
Others, taking the Claremont 5’s existence for granted, went to multiplexes in La Verne and Montclair for big-budget movies.
The Laemmle Claremont 5 is seen Jan. 17. A loyal audience of film buffs, seniors and families liked the theater’s low-key aesthetic, range of films and modest prices. It’s been sold to Regency Theatres, which plans a remodel. (Photo by David Allen, Inland Valley Daily Bulletin/SCNG) “So long partner,” reads the farewell message on one side of the Laemmle Claremont 5 marquee Monday. The five-screen theater downtown has been sold to Regency Theatres and showed its last movies Thursday. (Photo by David Allen, Inland Valley Daily Bulletin/SCNG) Greg Laemmle, president of Laemmle Theatres, poses in the Claremont 5 lobby with columnist David Allen in 2023 prior to a screening of the documentary “Only in Theaters.” (Courtesy) Show Caption1 of 3The Laemmle Claremont 5 is seen Jan. 17. A loyal audience of film buffs, seniors and families liked the theater’s low-key aesthetic, range of films and modest prices. It’s been sold to Regency Theatres, which plans a remodel. (Photo by David Allen, Inland Valley Daily Bulletin/SCNG) ExpandSome of you had gripes. You didn’t like the parking. You wished the seats reclined. You wondered why one men’s room urinal was perpetually broken.
Some had positive things to say.
“I’m going to miss the presentation of Oscar-nominated shorts, live and animated, they did every year,” laments Bruce Culp of Montclair.
Kristina Warren of Mount Baldy had just been there to see “Zootopia 2” when the sale was announced. “Every time a new release came out,” she says, “I made sure to watch it there to help support Laemmle.”
“Tuesday movies before 4 p.m., senior prices were $7. That was a deal,” enthuses Angie Gillingham of West Covina.
Some didn’t get the Claremont 5 or were indifferent to supporting the little guy. But then the chain’s specialty is movies that don’t appeal to a mass audience. It’s unsurprising that the mass audience didn’t embrace the theater.
I’ve seen dozens of movies at the Claremont 5. Sometimes only a handful of seats were filled, like for “Turn Every Page,” a delightful 2022 documentary about LBJ biographer Robert Caro and his long-suffering editor, Robert Gottlieb. How can a movie with a 100% rating on Rotten Tomatoes attract only three people?
The Claremont 5 was comfortable enough. Its standard theater seats were the type we all were accustomed to until multiplexes installed roomy recliners, with higher pricing to match.
Some of my favorite moviegoing experiences have been in decidedly nondeluxe surroundings.
At the University of Illinois in the mid-1980s, classic movies were shown in a stifling basement with seating on wooden benches. Volunteers handed out church fans at the door.
Later, while living in Sonoma County, I regularly drove to Berkeley’s ancient, beat-up UC Theatre for repertory films. The seats that weren’t broken were cramped and worn, and the auditorium seemingly had no climate control. Who cared?
Ditto with Sonoma State University’s Sonoma Film Institute double features. I was a regular for years. The small auditorium, a science classroom, had wooden seats. And what an education we all got.
In the 2000s, I sweltered or froze at Pasadena’s downscale Academy 6, perhaps the region’s most decrepit theater.
In other words, I am not a man looking to push a button on a wide, Starship Enterprise-type chair to elevate the footrest. I’m there to watch a movie, not take a nap.
My friend Stephanie has the same attitude. She took her two kids to the Claremont 5 all the time. They would get popcorn and Icees at the concession counter and settle in for a kids movie.
She tried the AMC 12 at Montclair Place mall and didn’t care for it.
Admission was nearly $25. The commercials were long and loud. The movie was at such high volume she thought the sound level was a mistake.
“I missed the Laemmle’s quiet ads and movie trivia set to vibey indie music,” Stephanie says of its dignified pre-show slides. “I left the AMC thinking that I appreciate our little no-frills theater.”
Same. An infrequent moviegoer, I’ve gone more often since the theater’s sale was announced in November.
Patrons enter an auditorium at the Laemmle Claremont 5 on Sunday night, four days before the theater’s end, for a screening of Best Picture nominee “Sentimental Value.” Ultimately about 35 people occupied 200 seats. (Photo by David Allen, Inland Valley Daily Bulletin/SCNG)I had nearly used up the original $100 in stored value on my Laemmle Premiere Card, which gives you $2 or $3 off each ticket. Girding my loins for battle, I transferred two gift cards onto the loyalty card and began my final run.
In 2025’s final weeks, “Nouvelle Vague,” “Frankenstein,” “Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery” and, on Christmas Eve, “Marty Supreme” were all seen and enjoyed.
In early January, I was amazed by “The Plague,” a great, unsettling body-horror drama about being a teenager. I was the lone ticket buyer.
“Enjoy your private screening,” the ticket seller joked. Disappointingly, a few minutes later another man bought a ticket and entered. I should’ve thrown him out.
A week later came “No Other Choice,” a dark comedy from South Korea about a laid-off paper company employee who decides to assassinate his rivals to clear the field for his return.
A bout with the flu kept me out of the theater for a crucial week. With $26.50 left on my card, and only five days left, I saw best picture nominees two nights straight.
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In post-literate America, some can’t imagine life without reading A Line train from Pomona whisks friends to LA’s Philippe for lunch Cameron Crowe makes Riverside’s 1964 Bob Dylan concert almost famous Bob Weir dies at 78; Grateful Dead played San Bernardino twice A steal: Lou Brock signed baseball given to fan in Pomona (me)“Sentimental Value,” about a 75-year-old auteur trying to make one last film and repair his relationships with his two estranged daughters, was fantastic. I saw that on Sunday, then returned Monday for “Hamnet,” a wrenching version of Shakespeare’s family life.
After buying my ticket, I had $6.50 left — but no more nights free. So I went back to the lobby and, for one of the few times in my life, got a popcorn. Ringing me up, an employee told me, chuckling: “You have 10 cents left on your card.”
Close enough. Laemmle, thanks for the memories.
David Allen writes Friday, Sunday and Wednesday from uncomfortable chairs. Email dallen@scng.com, phone 909-483-9339 and follow davidallencolumnist on Facebook or Instagram, @davidallen909 on X or @davidallen909.bsky.social on Bluesky.
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