You step through the doors of the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures, and the first thing that hits you is the scale of it. Not just the physical scale — though the Saban Building’s iconic Streamline Moderne rotunda is genuinely breathtaking — but the emotional scale. This is a place that hold a pair of ruby slippers from The Wizard of Oz. A place where Dorothy’s glittery shoes sit behind glass while the 25-foot-long Bruce the Shark from Jaws, looms nearby. You realize, almost immediately, that you are not in a typical museum. In fact, it might seem as if you are are inside cinema itself. What’s more, an intriguing new exhibit is just days from opening that celebrates the life and legacy of Marilyn Monroe.
Located at 6067 Wilshire Boulevard on Los Angeles’s Miracle Mile, the Academy Museum opened in 2021 and has never stopped evolving. Indeed, in 2026, it reaches a kind of full creative stride. The lineup of exhibitions this year is arguably the most ambitious and emotionally varied the museum has ever assembled. Whether you love vintage Hollywood glamour, Japanese anime or the terror of a great white shark, the Academy Museum has something here for you.
The Academy Museum of Motion Pictures
Start With the Foundation: Stories of Cinema
Before you dive into the temporary exhibitions, give yourself time with the museum’s core permanent galleries on the second and third floors. In fact, Stories of Cinema is the heartbeat of the entire institution. In some detail, it doesn’t follow a rigid timeline. Instead, it explores filmmaking thematically — technology, performance, craft, identity, sound, and the global sweep of cinema.
Here is where you encounter the artifacts that make you audibly gasp. For instance, get to see a pair of Dorothy’s ruby slippers from The Wizard of Oz shimmer under display lights in a way that no photograph ever captures. Standing next to them, you feel the full weight of what a movie prop can carry — generations of memory, imagination, and shared cultural belonging. Nearby, Bruce the Shark from Jaws is somehow both funny and genuinely unsettling in person, a monument to practical filmmaking ingenuity. What’s more, Bruce is the only surviving fiberglass model from that 1975 movie.
Authentic Outfits at Stories of Cinema Exhibit
The museum has also installed a striking new display of screen-worn costumes that stops visitors cold. Look for the dazzling outfits worn by Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande in Wicked: For Good Then find the iconic looks worn by Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling in Barbie — seeing those costumes up close, in person, drives home just how precisely conceived that film’s visual language really was. Throughout these galleries, the museum makes its most compelling argument: the objects of filmmaking carry as much meaning as the films themselves.
Barbie to Anna Karenina Exhibit
Don’t miss the Barbie to Anna Karenina: The Cinematic Worlds of Sarah Greenwood and Katie Spencer exhibition, a deep-dive into the production design genius behind three wildly different films: Anna Karenina (2012), the 2017 live-action Beauty and the Beast, and Greta Gerwig’s Barbie (2023). Greenwood and Spencer have earned seven Oscar nominations between them, and this show reveals exactly why. You walk through immersive recreations of their sets, study concept art and scale models, and encounter original props — including a pink Chevrolet recreation from Barbie that you can actually sit in. There’s even a playful Easter egg: a “Barbie Karenina” book tucked into the Barbie section as a knowing nod to their full filmography. It’s the kind of detail that makes you love movies all over again.
Don’t Miss: Jaws: The Exhibition (Through July 26, 2026)
If you arrive before late July, do not skip Jaws: The Exhibition. This is the museum’s largest single-film retrospective to date, and it earns that distinction. Spread across 11,000 square feet, the exhibition uses over 200 original objects to tell the complete story of Steven Spielberg’s 1975 masterpiece — from its notoriously troubled production to its permanent place in American culture.
Organized into six sections, you move through pre-production, principal photography, post-production, and legacy in a way that feels genuinely revelatory. The exhibition draws from Spielberg’s personal collection, the Amblin Hearth Archive, and NBCUniversal Archives. You’ll find concept drawings, mechanical shark schematics, crew costumes, and a prop dorsal fin that actually appeared in the film. Interactive moments are woven throughout, so the experience never feels static.
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Currently On View: Studio Ghibli’s PONYO (Through January 10, 2027)
On February 14, 2026, the museum opened Studio Ghibli’s PONYO, a love letter to one of the most beloved animated films ever made. It runs through January 10, 2027, so you have time — but don’t wait too long.
The exhibition celebrates the traditional hand-drawn animation processes behind Hayao Miyazaki’s 2008 film Ponyo, from its magical underwater worlds to the flowing, painterly aesthetic that makes every frame feel alive. Studio Ghibli donated over 100 materials to the Academy Collection specifically for this show, including art boards, posters, an animation desk, and original hand drawings by Miyazaki himself. Many of these objects have never been displayed in North America before.
There’s also an interactive animation table where you can try your own hand at creating animated sequences — a detail that makes this exhibition equally wonderful for adults and children. The immersive play environment for younger visitors is thoughtfully designed. This is one of those rare exhibitions that works for every age in the room, simultaneously.
The Main Event: Marilyn Monroe: Hollywood Icon (Opens May 31, 2026)
Mark your calendar. On May 31, 2026, the Academy Museum opens what is sure to be the most talked-about exhibition in Los Angeles this year: Marilyn Monroe: Hollywood Icon. The show runs through February 28, 2027, so you have a generous window — but opening weekend is going to be electric. Museum members get an exclusive preview the day before, on Saturday, May 30.
Celebrating Marilyn Monroe’s 100th Birthday
The timing is deeply meaningful. June 1, 2026 would have been Marilyn Monroe’s 100th birthday. Born Norma Jeane Mortenson, she died at 36 in Brentwood in 1962 — never nominated for an Academy Award during her lifetime, despite performances that changed what Hollywood understood about screen presence, comedy, and vulnerability. This exhibition is, among other things, a long-overdue reckoning with that oversight.
The Marilyn Monroe: Hollywood Icon Exhibit
Curated by Associate Curator Sophia Serrano, the show presents hundreds of original objects: posters, portraits, photographs, production documents, letters, and rarely seen personal materials, many of which are going on public display for the first time. The Academy has positioned Monroe not merely as a Hollywood sex symbol but as what she was — a visionary actor and image-maker who understood, with remarkable sophistication, how to shape her own public persona within the constraints of the classical studio system.
The costume highlights alone justify the ticket price. Look for two costumes designed by Orry-Kelly from Some Like It Hot (1959), a film made during a year of dramatic personal and professional turbulence for Monroe. Look for the rarely exhibited pink dress designed by William Travilla that Monroe wore in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953). And look for items from Something’s Got to Give, her final and unfinished film — artifacts that carry an almost unbearable poignancy.
The exhibition spans the full arc of Monroe’s screen career, from a dress worn in Love Happy (1949) to the fragments of a film she never finished. It is a reminder that the woman the world turned into a symbol was, above all else, a working actor of uncommon skill and ambition.
Also on the 2026 Docket: What’s Coming Later This Year
The museum isn’t stopping with Marilyn. Later in 2026, several more exhibitions and installations open their doors.
Glow: A Cinematic Moodscape
On July 31, look for Glow: A Cinematic Moodscape, a new immersive installation using synchronized projections, lighting, and music to explore how cinema has depicted light itself — sunrise, moonlight, neon, fireworks, and other visual phenomena. It’s the kind of experience that rewards lingering.
The Horror Show
In September, the museum opens The Horror Show, a major exhibition examining why horror films matter so deeply and so persistently to audiences around the world. The show unfolds through six thematic galleries covering gothic, psychological, science, slasher, religion, and ghost subgenres. Expect creature displays, props, and a behind-the-scenes look at how filmmakers manufacture fear. Alongside it, a family-friendly exhibition called Zombies! examines zombie mythology and moviemaking techniques. The Academy Museum has clearly decided that autumn belongs to things that go bump in the night.
Hidden Worlds: The Films of LAIKA
Then, on December 13, Hidden Worlds: The Films of LAIKA opens, running through September 2027. This one celebrates the stop-motion animation studio behind Coraline, Kubo and the Two Strings, ParaNorman, The Boxtrolls, and Missing Link. Through behind-the-scenes photography, video, and original artwork, the exhibition immerses you in LAIKA’s extraordinary creative process — one of the most labor-intensive and visually inventive forms of filmmaking in the world.
Dining and Shopping at the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures
Stay for Dinner: Fanny’s Restaurant and Café
Plan your visit around a meal at Fanny’s, and you’ll leave with a full stomach and a story worth telling. Named after Fanny Brice — the trailblazing entertainer immortalized by Barbra Streisand in her Oscar-winning turn in Funny Girl (1968) — this two-story, 10,000-square-foot restaurant is as much a part of the museum experience as anything hanging on the walls. The design, completed by Commune Design, threads old Hollywood glamour through a distinctly modern California sensibility. It feels like eating inside a film set that happens to serve excellent food.
The daytime café is an ideal midday pit stop. Grab an espresso, a fresh-baked pastry, or the salmon crudo and find a table. The pace is relaxed and the light is good. Come evening, Fanny’s transforms. The dinner service is elegant and unhurried — captain-based, white tablecloth, the kind of meal you linger over. The menu leans into hearty, globally inspired California cooking: a tableside Caesar salad, a 12-ounce dry-aged New York strip, côte de boeuf carved tableside, and a citrus crème brûlée that arrives like a punctuation mark on a very good sentence.
The cocktail program is the final flourish. Movie-inspired drinks named for iconic films — including the All About Eve and the Black Panther — give the bar menu a wit and specificity that matches its surroundings perfectly. Dinner runs Wednesday through Saturday. Make a reservation before you arrive. This is not a walk-in kind of place.
Don’t Leave Without Visiting the Academy Museum Store
The Academy Museum Store sits near the exit, and it will stop you in your tracks. Give yourself more time here than you think you need. This is not a gift shop in any conventional sense. It’s a meticulously curated retail experience that mirrors the intelligence and specificity of the museum itself, and it consistently carries items you simply cannot find anywhere else.
The inventory moves with the exhibitions. Right now, that means original Studio Ghibli merchandise — art books, licensed Japanese dishware, and hand-drawn animation prints — many of which are exclusive to this location in North America. With the Marilyn Monroe centennial exhibition opening May 31, expect a striking companion collection of posters, photography books, and archival-quality prints to follow.
Beyond the exhibition-specific pieces, the store stocks an exceptional film library covering cinematography, costume history, production design, and critical theory. The apparel is thoughtfully designed, not logo-heavy. The collectibles are officially licensed and feel worth owning. A good rule of thumb: if something catches your eye and it’s tied to a current exhibition, buy it on the spot. These items move quickly, and the online store rarely stocks everything the physical shop carries. You have been warned.
Plan Your Visit: The Essentials
The Academy Museum is open Wednesday through Monday, 10am to 6pm, and is closed on Tuesdays. General admission is $25 for adults, with reduced pricing for older visitors and students. Children 17 and under are free. The Oscars® Experience carries a separate admission fee on top of your general ticket.
Getting here is straightforward. The museum sits on Wilshire Boulevard at the edge of Hancock Park, steps from the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Street parking is limited, so the B Line Metro (Red) to the new Wilshire/Fairfax Metro station on the D Line is a genuinely good option. In fact, the new Wilshire/Fairfax station is just across the street from the Academy Museum. If you’re driving, a parking structure sits adjacent to the building.
Give yourself at least three hours for a meaningful visit. Give yourself five if you want to linger over Jaws, wander through Ponyo, and absorb the weight of Marilyn Monroe’s personal letters at the pace these deserve.
The museum also houses the David Geffen Theater and the Ted Mann Theater, both of which host an ongoing calendar of repertory screenings, filmmaker conversations, and special events. Check the programming calendar when you book your tickets. The spring season alone has included 4K restoration premieres, retrospective film series, and director conversations that don’t happen anywhere else in the city.
The Bottom Line
The Academy Museum of Motion Pictures is no longer the city’s most underrated cultural institution. Word has gotten out. But the depth of what’s on offer here in 2026 — from the hand-drawn wonder of Studio Ghibli to the centennial reckoning with Marilyn Monroe’s legacy, to the coming darkness of The Horror Show — puts this museum in a category of its own.
Los Angeles has always been the city that made the movies. This is finally the place where the movies give something back.
Buy your tickets in advance and make sure to wear comfortable shoes.
The Academy Museum of Motion Pictures is located at 6067 Wilshire Boulevard, Los Angeles, CA 90036. General admission tickets are available at academymuseum.org
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About The Author
Randy Yagi is an award-winning writer who served as the National Travel Writer for CBS from 2012 to 2019. More than 900 of his stories still appear in syndication across 23 CBS websites, including New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, and San Francisco. During his peak years with CBS, Randy had a reported digital audience reach of 489 million and 5.5 million monthly visitors. Additionally, his stories have appeared in the Daily Meal, CBS News, CBS Radio, Engadget, NBC.com, NJ.com, and Radio.com. He earned a Media Fellowship from Stanford University and is a Bay Area Travel Writers (BATW) member.