The Academy Awards are leaving Hollywood. Starting with the 101st ceremony in 2029, the Oscars will move to the Peacock Theatre at L.A. Live in downtown Los Angeles. The Academy announced the news on March 26, 2026, along with a deal with venue operator AEG that runs through 2039. That is a ten-year commitment to a location that has never hosted the Oscars before.
Hollywood Boulevard Loses Its Biggest Night After 26 Years
The Dolby Theatre has been the home of the Academy Awards since 2002. That is 26 consecutive years at the same address, longer than the Oscars have stayed anywhere in their history. The Dolby was not a venue that the Academy rented. It was designed specifically to be a permanent home for the ceremony. Walking away from that is a significant decision, and the Academy knows it.
The Peacock Theater sits 9 miles from the Dolby, across town in the L.A. Live complex next to the Crypto Arena. It seats around 7,100 people, which is more than double the Dolby’s capacity.
The Emmys have called it home for most of the past two decades. AEG is investing in upgrades before the Oscars arrive, covering the stage, lighting, sound systems, lobby renovations, and backstage facilities. The venue is not going to look the same by 2029.
The move is landing alongside two other major changes happening at exactly the same time. The Oscars are leaving ABC for YouTube in 2029, ending a broadcast television run that stretches back to 1976.
Three structural changes in one go is not a coincidence. The Academy is trying to modernize the entire event at once rather than adjusting one piece at a time and hoping the rest catches up.
The practical case for the Peacock is straightforward. L.A. Live is a self-contained campus. The red carpet, the ceremony, press operations, the Governors Ball, and afterparties can all operate within a compact footprint that includes the JW Marriott hotel next door.
At the Dolby, multiple blocks of Hollywood Boulevard shut down for days every year, and operations spread out in every direction. The logistics have always been complicated. L.A. Live simplifies them considerably.
What it does not replace is the history. Walking out of the Dolby and onto the Hollywood Walk of Fame is something that cannot be recreated 9 miles away in downtown Los Angeles.
The Oscars and Hollywood Boulevard have been linked long enough that the separation is going to feel significant, regardless of how good the new venue looks.
The Dolby hosts its final ceremony at the 100th Oscars in 2028. Then everything moves. Whether downtown L.A. ever feels like the right home for the Oscars is a question that will take years to answer.
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