About The Theatre:
The Dolby® Theatre will serve as an ongoing showcase for the latest innovations in Dolby entertainment technology, including Dolby® Atmos™, a breakthrough audio technology that delivers the most natural, life-like sensory experience. The Dolby Theatre also features Dolby 3D, a state-of-the-art imaging solution that provides audiences with a superior 3D experience. Dolby will continue to update the 180,000-square-foot, 3,400-seat Dolby Theatre with cutting edge technologies, ensuring that Dolby Theatre sets the stage for entertainment technology as host of the world's biggest movie premieres, events, and performances, for years to come.
As a first class live entertainment venue, Dolby Theatre has hosted a range of prestigious artists and events including IRIS by Cirque du Soleil, Alicia Keys, Celine Dion, Prince, Elvis Costello, Barry Manilow, Stevie Wonder, Harry Connick, Jr., Melissa Etheridge, Dixie Chicks, Tyler Perry, American Ballet Theatre and various touring Broadway productions.
Notable television and awards events at Dolby Theatre have included the American Idol finals, AFI Lifetime Achievement Awards to Tom Hanks, Meryl Streep, and George Lucas, Daytime Emmy Awards, ESPY Awards and BET Awards.
For the theatergoer, the Dolby Theatre experience begins on Hollywood Boulevard, where a towering portal, designed by Rockwell, serves as the grand entrance to the theatre, which is set back from the street. A two-story Awards Walk, featuring backlit glass plaques for each Best Picture Oscar® winner on a series of limestone portals, leads up a sweeping staircase with red mosaic tile to the main entrance.
The five-level theatre lobby is centered by a grand spiral staircase with cherrywood balustrades, topped by an oval, uplit silvery dome. Certain lobby design elements were inspired by Michelangelo’s Campodiglio in Rome and Busby Berkeley’s choreography. Twenty-six spectacular images of famous Oscar® winners including Grace Kelly, Jack Nicholson, Marlon Brando, Halle Berry and Julia Roberts are permanently displayed on four lobby levels as photographic transparencies on clear plexiglass hung in front of shimmering beaded “silver screen” panels.