Will The Academy Move the Oscars From the Kodak Theatre?

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According to the Hollywood Reporter, the Academy may consider moving the Oscar ceremony to another venue, namely AEG's Nokia Theatre in downtown Los Angeles. The Academy's lease with the Kodak Theatre expires in 2013 and it doesn't sound like the Academy is going to immediately renew their lease.

The Hollywood Reporter writes, "the downtown venue is offering a lease comparable to what the Academy currently pays CIM Group, owner of the 3,400 seat Kodak, but with a perks package that includes more seats, better infrastructure, greater promotional opportunities and more ancillary facilities for parties and press."

After many businesses left Hollywood in the 1980s and 1990s and the area became known as an unsafe place to visit, the opening of the Kodak Theatre and the attached shopping complex in 2001 attracted other business back to the area.  Every time I go through Hollywood it seems like a new popular restaurant, club, shop, condominium complex or other business has opened. The streets are always filled with locals and tourists alike. I think it would be sad for the Kodak Theatre which has played a large part in Hollywood's revival and for the Hollywood neighborhood as well, to lose the prestige of hosting the Oscars.

However, it wouldn't be the first time the Academy Awards ceremony has moved to another venue. After the first ceremony took place in 1929 at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel, across the street from where the Kodak Theatre complex stands today, the Academy Awards had moved to the Ambassador Hotel in Hollywood, the Biltmore Hotel in downtown Los Angeles, the Grauman's Chinese Theater in Hollywood, the Shrine Auditorium near downtown Los Angeles, the Pantages Theatre in Hollywood, the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium in Santa Monica, and the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion at the Los Angeles County Music Center in downtown Los Angeles before ultimately ending up at the Kodak in 2002.

What do you think about the Oscars possibly moving from the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood to the Nokia Theatre in downtown Los Angeles?