The 2026 award’s season was an overdrawn, arduous sprint to the finish line—and the shake-ups are apparently not even over. On March 26, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) announced a partnership with developer AEG to relocate the Oscars ceremony from its longtime home at Dolby Theatre to the Peacock Theater in Downtown LA. The move is slated for 2029, which marks the end of the Oscars two-decade residency at the The Dolby Theatre, making the 100th Oscars in 2028 its last in the landmark hall.
In a press release from AEG and the AMPAS, a plan was outlined for the ceremony to take place in the Peacock Theatre through 2039. The Peacock Theater was designed by Berkley,California-based firm ELS Architecture and Urban Design in 2007, originally named the Nokia Theatre.
“We are thrilled to partner with a global powerhouse like AEG. Their track record for building and operating technologically sophisticated live performance venues is unrivaled,” academy CEO Bill Kramer and academy President Lynette Howell Taylor said.
AEG is the developer responsible for L.A. Live, the 23-acre entertainment hub that houses the Peacock Theater. Compared to the Dolby Theatre’s 3,400 seating capacity, the venue change offers an additional 3,800 seats. Comprehensive upgrades and adjustments to the theater’s sound and lighting are slated to take place.
AEG’s purview will extend to lobby and backstage adjustments as well as collaborating with the Academy to incorporate bespoke elements to accommodate the Oscars ceremony. L.A. Live’s massive concrete pavilion will make way for red carpet arrivals and activities, just in time for the broadcast to shift from ABC to Youtube, another change planned for the same year.
The Peacock Theater has been no stranger to hosting primetime broadcast events. The venue has held the Emmys Ceremony since 2008 and hosted the 2025 gaming awards most recently.
Designing Dolby
When American architect David Rockwell was commissioned to design the Dolby Theatre, it was built with the ceremony in mind. The development cost $94 million, and included infrastructure for 14 fixed camera positions with optimal electricity output throughout the space. Even seating arrangement was considered, with nominees no more than four seats away from an aisle.
Its facade takes cues from art deco theaters from the 1920s in a nostalgic modern interpretation, with the famous TCL Chinese Theatre just around the corner. A colonnade trails between its front entrance to the grand staircase, whose columns adorn a series of plaques naming each best picture winner since 1927 with room to continue until 2071. What will happen to this after the move?
The Dolby Theatre has been a fixture on Hollywood Boulevard since its opening in 2002 (then called the Kodak Theatre before the camera company’s bankruptcy in 2012), which marked an upward shift in the district. When property developers TrizecHahn tapped the AMPAS in 1997 it was during a period when the Oscars ceremony moved from venue to venue across Los Angeles. Hollywood Boulevard was much less known for its glitz and glam but rather for tourist traps and ubiquitous storefront vacancy. Not unlike how Disney rescued Times Square in the 90’s, the Oscars help bring back prosperity back to the heart of Hollywood.
Los Angeles at large is also undergoing a number of civic initiatives to enhance and urbanize its downtown, ahead of the 2028 Summer Olympics and with community efforts as its residential population expands.
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