"Coming late 2026/early 2027." That is the full timeline on Meow Wolf's Los Angeles page, sitting above an email signup box. The page has no ticket link and no opening day, and the date range runs across a New Year.
By the time this post goes up, "late 2026" leaves about nine weeks. The Howard Hughes Center is the Westchester stop for a Cinemark movie, a burger at Islands, or a night at Dave & Buster's. Its owner has rebuilt the center's plans around one tenant, and that tenant's opening date has already slipped once. The latest concrete sign of progress is a state liquor license record whose status changed on October 14.
Half a multiplex, and the movies stay
Meow Wolf is taking only part of the Cinemark. In July 2024 the Los Angeles Business Journal reported that the center's 148,000-square-foot theater would be split roughly in half, with about 74,000 square feet for Meow Wolf and about 74,000 for the continuing cinema. The theater is still running. HHLA's directory lists it as Cinemark Howard Hughes Los Angeles and XD, and Cinemark's own page shows a showtimes schedule for Thursday, October 22, at 6081 Center Dr.
The movie theater shapes the whole concept. Meow Wolf's May 2024 press release named Los Angeles as its sixth permanent exhibition. In the Los Angeles Times report on the announcement, Chief Development Officer Amanda Clay described a "surreal dream world in a movie theater in West Los Angeles." The Times' January 2026 first look described an old movie theater being turned into "a maximalist playground, complete with animated candy at a concession stand and seats that appear to be floating." The early story concept is a pilgrimage to an intergalactic roadside attraction, with spaceship interiors, bikes that travel between planets, and a diner in a far-off galaxy.
The date has already moved
Laid out by source, the opening target looks like this:
| When it was said | Who said it | Opening target |
|---|---|---|
| July 1, 2024 | Los Angeles Business Journal | "early 2026" |
| May 20, 2026 | Los Angeles Times | "opens later this year" |
| July 9, 2026 | Los Angeles Times | "on target for a late 2026 opening" |
| September 1, 2026 | Los Angeles Times | "targeting late 2026" |
| Current, undated | Meow Wolf's LA page | "late 2026/early 2027" |
The first jump, from early 2026 to late 2026, happened sometime before May. Through the summer, every Times story stayed on late 2026. The company's own page now adds early 2027. That's a wider window than the Times printed just seven weeks earlier, but it isn't a new delay. It's an honest range for a project whose public schedule has no fixed day yet.
On construction, the January Times preview said the exhibit was being built at the Cinemark site, with installation in Los Angeles expected to pick up in the following weeks. It also showed art being made in Meow Wolf's Santa Fe warehouse in October 2025. Coverage since then has been about the art, not the building.
The record that changed this month
The more recent sign is at the California Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control. A license record pulled October 22, 2026 lists License No. 683625 under MW California, LLC, doing business as Meow Wolf, at 6081 W. Center Dr., Suite 201. The license type is an on-sale general eating place, its status is pending, and the status date is October 14, 2026.
That matches what the Times described inside the exhibit. The January highlights story mentions a cafe and a lounge bar, with neon sculpture and a projection wall behind the bar. That's separate from the dive-style diner planned for the end of the walk-through. A pending license doesn't set an opening date. It does show the food-and-drink side of the project is in active paperwork this fall, with an operator named and a specific suite in the building.
Who is filling the rooms
The art side moved quickly over the summer, and it's the reason a West LA version won't feel like a copy of Santa Fe or Las Vegas. In July, the Times reported a creative partnership with Titmouse, the Los Angeles animation studio behind "Big Mouth" and "Star Trek: Lower Decks." In September, the Times reported the local artist list: nearly 40 Los Angeles artists working in sculpture, dioramas, video, games and murals.
According to that report, the artists building full-scale rooms include:
- Gabriela Ruiz, whose multicolored insect will work as a periscope
- Everything Is Terrible, the collective whose room the Times reported features a "cartoony, root vegetable floating alien god"
- Charles E. Dickson of Compton, whose public work includes pieces at Metro's Mariposa Station and outside the California African American Museum
- Jen Stark, known for "Chromatic Cascade" in the downtown Arts District
- Lauren YS, also known as Squidlicker
- Wayne White, the main puppet-maker for "Pee-wee's Playhouse"
- Seth Bogart, of Hunx and his Punx
Six muralists are on the list too: Bunnie Reiss, Ozzie Juarez, Greg Ito, Harlan Hue, Evelyn Tan and Devin Reynolds. Downtown street artist S.C. Mero is among more than a dozen sculpture and diorama contributors. The local curation was led by Han Santana-Sayles, who told the Times that each artist needed "a really important story for this region."
A center rebuilt around one tenant
The timeline matters beyond one attraction because the whole center's plan depends on it. In its July 1, 2024 report, the LABJ said Tyler Mateen's Cannon TTM had bought the 250,000-square-foot Howard Hughes Center the previous March for a reported $80 million and was planning a $150 million overhaul to reposition the property around entertainment, with Meow Wolf as the first signed anchor. The plans included new art, electronic upgrades, parking improvements, signage and a food court.
Two years later, the center's public pages still show the earlier tenant mix. HHLA's dining directory lists Buffalo Wild Wings, Dave & Buster's, Islands Fine Burgers & Drinks and Kabuki Japanese Restaurant, with no food court listed. What has changed points the same way as the Meow Wolf deal. HHLA's Coming Soon page lists Squiggleverse, an indoor children's play venue with slides, an obstacle course, games, a sports arena, a racetrack and a STEM lab. No opening date is posted. At the existing 60out escape rooms, a PXL Room is marked "NEW!" and open for booking.
Put together, the new additions lean toward attractions. Meow Wolf brings an exhibit plus its own cafe, lounge and diner, Squiggleverse brings a kids' venue, and the theater keeps showing films. Of everything in the 2024 plan, the 74,000 square feet inside the old multiplex is the piece with a public opening window.
Getting in and parking, as it stands today
The parking structure's current terms are on the center's services page: the first 15 minutes free, a $12 daily maximum, and validation for Cinemark moviegoers. 60out's location page lists different figures, so HHLA's own page is the one to go by. Nothing published so far says how parking or validation will work once Meow Wolf opens.
For tickets, Meow Wolf's page offers an email signup and says subscribers will hear when tickets go live. The page doesn't mention LA memberships or a separate waitlist. The next solid milestone will probably be a ticket release, and that email list will hear about it first.
I've been watching the Howard Hughes Center change for a long time, and a big new anchor on the neighborhood's edge is the kind of thing buyers ask about when they tour Westchester homes. If you're wondering how projects like this play into your own plans, Zacha Homes can walk you through it street by street. Find out what your home is worth.
