Metropolitan Theatres is Los Angeles's oldest movie theater chain.

[1] Opened in 1923, they filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2024, at which point they owned 15 theaters: ten in southern California (including seven out of eight in Santa Barbara), three in Colorado, and two in Utah.

[3] In the 1970s, they shifted to blaxploitation films in their downtown Los Angeles theaters, in the 1980s, those same theaters shifted again, to Spanish language cinema.

Chief Executive Officer David Corwin blamed the bankruptcy on the Covid 19 pandemic, which he said was "devastating to the business," as well as the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes and increased labor, rent, and utilities expenses.

[1] Notable theaters that have been either owned or operated by Metropolitan Theatres include: