‘Priscilla’ L.A. Premiere Moves Amid Venue’s Union Dispute (Exclusive)

Priscilla’s L.A. premiere on Monday has been derailed by an ongoing IATSE contract dispute with the American Legion Theater in Hollywood. Distributor A24 confirms to The Hollywood Reporter that it decided on Friday to move to another, yet-to-be-announced location after becoming aware of the labor fight Thursday night.

THR published an in-depth examination of the Legion Theater’s travails on Sept. 26, which detailed how the venue at the venerable U.S. veterans club, known as Post 43, has become a battlefield for its warring membership over money, power and claims of sexual assault. (The Los Angeles Times ran its own detailed report on Sept. 27.) The underlying financial tensions have led to the conflict with the union.

IATSE Local 33, which represents projectionists, first picketed the property on Sept. 14. “American Legion Post 43 has committed multiple unfair labor practices, most significantly reneging on an agreement reached in April 2023 for a new collective bargaining agreement and misrepresenting the terms of that agreement to its membership,” the union’s business representative Ronald R. Valentine said in a statement. “As a result, IATSE Local 33 had no choice but to call a strike.” He added that his union was calling on its labor allies, “including our fellow union members in SAG-AFTRA,” to boycott any event held at Post 43 until Post 43 fulfills its legal obligations.”

As for the premiere’s cancellation, Valentine noted that Local 33 thanked A24 and those involved with Priscilla “for their solidarity.”

Post 43’s executive committee tells THR in a statement that it “will not be bullied into signing an unfair agreement for our veterans.”

After A24 confirmed its decision to move the event, Strategy PR, which is handling communications for the film’s rollout, issued a press alert that its red carpet would be canceled “out of respect for the events going on in the world,” alluding to the rapidly unfolding conflict in the Middle East.

Priscilla, based on executive producer Priscilla Presley’s 1985 memoir Elvis and Me, is an intimate look at her life with Elvis Presley, who himself served in the U.S. Army. The movie, opening Nov. 3, premiered in September at the Venice Film Festival and has garnered rapturous reviews, with a current Rotten Tomatoes rating of 93 percent. According to an invite, the L.A. premiere — to have been held at 7 p.m. on Monday — would’ve featured Presley herself, filmmaker Sofia Coppola, and lead actors Cailee Spaeny and Jacob Elordi.

After learning of the event, Local 33 consulted with SAG-AFTRA about the situation. The actors guild had granted Priscilla one of its interim agreements for independent productions.  

THR obtained an Oct. 10 email exchange between the Legion and Local 33’s respective attorneys. The club offered to hire a union projectionist “for certain work” in accordance with the terms of its expired contract. Local 33 rejected this proposal, noting it’d called a strike against Post 43 in protest of “serious unfair labor practices” and that the only solution to the impasse was a new collective bargaining agreement.

The state-of-the-art Legion Theater, which received a prestigious 2023 Kodak Film Award in recognition of its exhibition standards and patron services that “elevate the cultural and communal experience of cinema,” had in the past half-decade become a go-to for classic film festivals (such as TCM’s) as well as cast-and-crew screenings (Once Upon a Time in Hollywood) and awards season showings (including Baz Luhrmann’s own 2022 biopic of the King, Elvis).