2. TCL Chinese Theatre, Los Angeles, CA The Premiere Place of Star Wars
This one is for the movie buffs. Formerly known as Grauman's Chinese Theatre, this place is where select people first got to see a little known sci-fi movie called Star Wars (later to be known as A New Hope). Within 24 hours of its opening day, Star Wars began exponentially growing in its viewership, to the point that thousands more movie theaters were added to the lineup to receive Star Wars. As we can see, that little known film exploded into a worldwide phenomenon that has spawned thousands of toys, cosplay, blogs, and more movies. You, too, can stand on the place where the original stars of Star Wars first walked - and take in a movie at the same time - because the TCL Chinese Theater still operates as a working theater. But the theater goes beyond just Star Wars, as it opened in 1927 with the silent movie The King of Kings. It continued to host premieres with the most famous Hollywood celebrities imprinting their hands, feet, and other objects on cement around the theater. C-3PO, Darth Vader, and R2-D2 all have imprints there from 1977; George Lucas and Steven Spielberg imprinted their hands in 1984, with Harrison Ford imprinting his hands and feet in 1992. For those that want to see more than just Star Wars, there are also cement imprints of Clark Gable, The Marx Brothers, John Wayne, Marilyn Monroe, Elizabeth Taylor, Gene Kelly, Johnny Depp, Will Smith, and many other Hollywood stars from the past and present. You could spend hours trying to find your favorite Star Wars or Hollywood celebrities imprint.
Cost: Free. Parking across the street is $2 for up to four hours; movie tickets start from $6.50, but can go higher depending on what's showing.