"Purple Rain"

We see a bit of the outside of the Wiltern Theatre, 3790 Wilshire Blvd., near the beginning of "Purple Rain" (Warner Bros., 1984). Much of the opening sequence was shot at the First Avenue Club in Minneapolis but we get a few Wiltern shots cut in.

Prince arriving along the Western Ave. side of the theatre. 

Morris Day checks his hair in the mirror in front of the Wiltern.  

A moment later with the mirror gone we get another view of the top of the boxoffice. No, the interiors of this club aren't the Wiltern. We get another Wiltern shot about an hour into the film but it's just a very quick pan across the boxoffice area.

Check out the Wiltern Theatre pages on the Los Angeles Theatres site for photos of the theatre -- and more shots from films using it. There's other L.A. location work in the film including 752 S. Main St. as Apollonia's hotel.

Thanks to Mike Hume for three of the screenshots. See the page about the Wiltern on his Historic Theatre Photography site.

On IMDb: "Purple Rain"