New Operator of L.A.’s Bruin Theatre Says His Antisemitic Comments Are “Distractions From Reopening”

A comeback for Los Angeles’ iconic 88-year-old Bruin Theatre in Westwood is now in doubt. Information about its new operator, Canadian exhibitor Rui Pereira, may kill the revival.

On Aug. 26, IndieWire published an investigation highlighting claims of a checkered history with previous endeavors in Toronto’s film community. Among the accusations are nonpayment and unlicensed screenings at another independent venue. Most notably, the outlet — which, like The Hollywood Reporter , is owned by Penske Media — highlighted Pereira’s history of making racist and antisemitic remarks on his theaters’ social media accounts. These included references to “fake Jews,” “sub human devils,” “zionazis” and “murderous filthy vile hasbara fake Jew scumbags.” After another user referred to him as antisemitic, he responded on a Bruin Theatre-branded account: “You mean anti-septic?”

In an interview with THR , Pereira, 60, described any focus on his rhetoric as “nonsense” and “bullshit,” explaining, “whatever is there [online] doesn’t have to do with what I’m doing [at the Bruin]. This is a contrived situation that exists in the false fantasyland of the Internet.” He argued he’s not a public figure. “I’m just a guy, a working person. My business is selling popcorn and pop and making sure the film is on the screen.”

Still, Pereira — who says he has no investors or partners in either his Toronto venues or his Bruin endeavor (he signed the lease in July) — believes that the highlighting of his comments may be blowback for his prior hosting of screenings of the recent Israel-critical films No Other Land and Palestine 36 in Canada. “I’m sympathetic to the Palestinians and to humanity,” he says.

Pereira sought out the Bruin after he learned that a previous deal for it had collapsed. The earlier effort involved the director Jason Reitman, who has taken over the Westwood Village Theater across the street. He sought out the owners, who are descendants of Spyros Skouras, once the president of 20th Century Fox. The family could not be reached for comment.

Pereira, who contends he isn’t “anti-Jewish,” asserts, “Zionism has now been conflated with genocide and ethnic cleansing.” (Both charges are subject to significant dispute among scholars of the Israel-Palestine conflict.) He tells THR , “everyone is welcome at the [Bruin] theater, including Zionists. I’ve come to open the theater for everybody.”

The Bruin is located at the heart of one of the most demographically Jewish areas of the Los Angeles region, which features the third-largest concentration of Jews in the world after New York City and Tel Aviv. According to a recent survey , 88 percent of Jews believe that Israel has the right to exist as a Jewish, Democratic state — the historically accepted definition of Zionism.

The venue is among a group of local exhibition landmarks, including Hollywood’s Cinerama Dome, Glendale’s Alex and Westwood’s Village, whose resurrections as first-run movie houses has generated a surge of civic optimism .