Cinema that hosted Hollywood's first ever premiere reopens after $70m renovation

"Everyone from starland was there", so reported the Los Angeles Times in its 1922 coverage of a party hosted to mark the release of a new silent film, Douglas Fairbanks in Robin Hood.

- Lois Beckett

The flashbulbs of photographers lit up the night sky as a procession of Tinseltown's luminaries sashayed into the venue along a red-coloured carpet. Ticketholding members of the public strained their necks to catch a glimpse, and even Charlie Chaplin gave a speech.

What nobody in attendence realised is that they were witnessing the invention of what is now a permanent fixture of Hollywood pageantry. The venue that staged it all was the Egyptian theatre.

The cinema, built by the showman Sid Grauman, went on to host some of Los Angeles's most star-studded premieres, from Ben-Hur to My Fair Lady to Return of the Jedi before falling into eventual disrepair and closing in 1992.

Now the new powerbrokers of the global film industry have taken up its cause. Netflix acquired the theatre in 2020 and has reopened it after a $70m (£57m) renovation, with the streaming company planning to use the lavish location once more as a venue for premieres and events.

The Egyptian theatre will screen classic films at the weekends, programmed by its previous owner, the non-profit American Cinematheque. During the week, it will host screenings for Netflix.