AMC Criterion 6 Closes

The AMC Criterion 6 played its last movies Thursday.

One of three movie theaters on the Third Street Promenade, all of them owned by AMC, the 1,600-seat 6-plex will be converted into a flagship store for a retailer, according to Andy Agle, the city's director of housing and economic development.

"I do not know which retailer it is," he said.

In November, the planning department gave approval to change the property's zoning to "general retail use." Officials have said the the closure would result in a 27 percent reduction in the number of cinema seats downtown, which could clear the way for a new state-of-the-art theater to open on city-owned property at Arizona Avenue and Fourth Street.

An AMC spokesperson did not immediately return a message seeking comment Friday afternoon, but an employee confirmed the theater is closed permanently.

A corporation named Criterion Santa Monica LLC has filed an application with the city's planning department for exterior renovations.

The original Criterion at 1311 Third Street Promenade was built in 1924, then razed and remodeled in the late 1930s, according to the website Cinema Treasures. It was reportedly remodeled again in 1991 and 2001 by Behr Browers Architects of Westlake.

AMC purchased the theater in 2010, cementing its Promenade monopoly, according to the Santa Monica Daily Press.

AMC was the city's first pick to open the new theater on Arizona, where parking structure 3 stands today, because it planned to eliminate some seats at one of itss existing location. But in the fall, it backed out of negotiations because it said the new project wouldn't make enough money.

AMC proposed erecting a 70,000-square-foot theater with 2,167 seats, plus restaurant and lounge space open to the public. A study found the new theater would increase traffic in downtown.

City officials had said they would still be able to reduce the number of theater seats elsewhere in downtown because of the zoning change at the Criterion.

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