There’s a quiet, deliberate kind of magic in watching Star Wars on the big screen before the year really gets going. No hype cycles. No spoilers. Just a darkened theater, a familiar score, and a story you already know—but somehow still want to revisit.
That’s exactly what’s happening in Los Angeles this winter.
Starting Saturday, January 3, 2026, the Ted Mann Theater on Wilshire Boulevard is hosting a steady run of Star Wars theatrical screenings—one film per week, all beginning at 11:00am. It’s a simple idea, executed well, and it lands at a very specific moment in the franchise’s timeline.
What’s Screening, and When
The program opens with The Empire Strikes Back on Saturday, January 3, followed by Return of the Jedi on January 10.
From there, the schedule moves backward and forward across the saga:
- The Phantom Menace – January 17
- Attack of the Clones – January 24
- Solo: A Star Wars Story – January 31
- Revenge of the Sith – February 7
- The Force Awakens – February 14
- The Last Jedi – February 21
- The Rise of Skywalker – February 28
Every screening starts at 11:00am. No evening rush. No marathon fatigue. Just a consistent Saturday ritual stretching across two months.
Why This Run Lands at the Right Time
This isn’t just a nostalgia play. The timing matters.
Star Wars is heading back to theaters in a big way in May 2026 with The Mandalorian and Grogu. That makes this winter run feel less like a retrospective and more like a runway—an opportunity to reconnect with the saga’s theatrical roots before a new chapter arrives.
Seeing these films projected, with real sound design and an audience reacting in real time, hits differently than streaming at home. It reminds you which moments were built for silence, which were designed for laughter, and which still land like a punch to the chest.
Why It Still Works, Even If You’ve Seen Them All
The selection itself tells a story.
Opening with The Empire Strikes Back sets the tone: this is Star Wars at its most confident and emotionally sharp. Moving through the prequels and into the sequel era highlights how much the franchise has shifted in pacing, style, and thematic focus over four decades—without turning the experience into homework.
Solo sits in the middle of the run almost as a palate cleanser, while Revenge of the Sith and The Last Jedi remain two of the saga’s most debated entries. Seeing them in a theater context—away from discourse and reaction videos—has a way of reframing both.
The Bigger Picture
This kind of curated theatrical run reflects something Lucasfilm has quietly leaned into over the past few years: treating Star Wars as a cinema-first experience again, not just a streaming brand.
As new films return to theaters, these screenings act as a reminder of what the franchise looks like when it slows down and lets the films speak for themselves. No release pressure. No algorithmic urgency. Just stories, shown the way they were built to be seen.
For anyone in Los Angeles this winter, it’s a rare chance to start 2026 by reconnecting with Star Wars where it began—on a big screen, early in the day, with nothing else competing for attention.
And before the galaxy expands again in May, that feels like time well spent.
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