08/15/2026
47 YEARS AGO TODAY
“Apocalypse Now” premiered at the legendary Cinerama Dome and remained there for 16 weeks. Francis Ford Coppola’s epic opened here in a spectacular 70mm, six-track Dolby Stereo presentation. Coppola obtained special permission from the entertainment guilds to do this. He was emphatic about “Apocalypse Now”playing at the Dome because the sound could move around the auditorium in a way that was extraordinary in 1979—particularly effective during the helicopter sequences. United Artists initially opened the film in only three North American theaters: the Cinerama Dome, the Ziegfeld in New York and the University Theatre in Toronto. All three were equipped for the special 70mm Dolby Stereo presentation.
Tickets were sold on a reserved-performance/guaranteed-seat basis, reinforcing the idea that seeing Apocalypse Now was an occasion rather than an ordinary trip to the movies. Contemporary accounts put the Los Angeles ticket at $5, unusually expensive for 1979.
These random candids are truly amazing. All those flared trousers, wide collars and denim, the rope line along the sidewalk — and especially that long green Ford Thunderbird cruising by. These photos feel like their own scenes from a movie. Time capsules into an entirely different universe — a Los Angeles that somehow feels both familiar and impossibly far away. Nobody is staring into their nines. There are no digital signs or electronic ticket scanners. People bought their tickets, got in line and talked to each other with excitement while waiting for the doors to open. Moviegoers were even handed a printed program containing the cast and production credits.
Photos courtesy of Photos by Richard DuVal.
