Quentin Tarantino’s Los Angeles cinema to show pornography movies in nod to its 1970s roots
The New Beverly Cinema in Los Angeles, owned by Quentin Tarantino, is set to return to its 1970s roots this month by showing a programme of pornographic movies.
When the cinema first opened its doors in 1971, it was known as The Eros and specialised in exclusively showing different kinds of erotic pictures. However, from 1978 onwards, when it was bought by Sherman Torgan and subsequently by Tarantino in 2010, it transformed into a more conventional arthouse.
As such, acknowledging the half-century which has passed since the pornographic pictures were last gracing the scene at the cinema, it is running a programme for the entire length of February to honour these erotic roots.
The series began last week, showing a range of both well-known and more obscure pornographic movies.
However, one of the most coveted showings will take place on February 21st, when a midnight billing of The Fireworks Woman from director Wes Craven will grace the screen. The hardcore erotic film was first released in 1975, with the prolific horror director working under the pseudonym of Abe Snake.
Notably, the film was originally released during one of the director’s most acclaimed filmmaking periods within the horror realm, between The Last House on the Left and The Hills Have Eyes.
One of the programme’s most popular nights will also arrive on Valentine’s Day (February 14th) when a double feature showing of Vixen and Up, from director Russ Meyer, displaying a contrast between the playful and more serious sides of erotica.
Although Tarantino himself has never directed an erotic film, he has been a longtime fan of the genre, and in particular, its classics of the 1970s era.
He once said in regard to Meyer: “There were a lot of promises made. Some of them were kept and fulfilled, and some of them weren’t. One of the promises that unfortunately existed that year [1970] and a couple years after that was never fulfilled was the promise of a new, erotic cinema.”
The tribute to the Eros at the New Beverly Cinema is running from February 2nd until March 1st, 2026.
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