The Academy Awards ceremony will move from the Dolby Theatre to the Peacock Theater in downtown Los Angeles starting in 2029, marking the end of more than twenty years at the Hollywood Boulevard venue.
The Academy announced that the 100th Oscars ceremony in 2028 will be the final one held at the Dolby Theatre, which has hosted the event since 2002. From 2029 onward, the ceremony will take place at the Peacock Theater at the L.A. Live complex under a new agreement with AEG that will run until 2039.
New venue at L.A. Live complex
The relocation is part of a broader restructuring of the event’s organisation and production. The L.A. Live complex offers a more integrated environment where the red carpet, ceremony hall, press facilities, backstage areas and after-parties can be organised within a single venue complex.
The Peacock Theater is expected to undergo upgrades in stage design, sound systems, lighting and technical infrastructure. Its larger capacity is also considered better suited to the Academy’s current membership, which now exceeds 11,000 members.
End of a long association with Hollywood Boulevard
For more than two decades, the Oscars ceremony had been closely associated with the Dolby Theatre, the Hollywood Walk of Fame and the central Hollywood district.
From 2029, however, the event will take place approximately nine miles away in downtown Los Angeles, in a setting described as more suited to the organisation of large-scale media events.
Shift in broadcast and distribution
The venue change coincides with another major development in the ceremony’s distribution. From 2029, the Oscars are also expected to move from ABC to YouTube as their broadcasting platform.
Together, the changes are viewed as part of an effort to adapt the ceremony to evolving media consumption patterns and to expand its global reach at a time when traditional television audiences are declining.