Hollywood Boulevard is known to many L.A. drivers as a route to avoid, as it plows headlong through the congested entertainment center and is frequently closed for events near the theaters surrounding Highland. For Saturday night's premiere of Cars 2, most drivers were forced to detour away from a full road closure there, while others—specifically, the prop cars from the movie—were permitted to cruise right through.
The premiere's arrivals setup, produced by 15/40 Productions, was designed to look like an international racetrack. The three main prop-car characters appeared on the carpet itself, and representations of grandstand-style bleachers showed cars lined up as attendees to watch the show; the cars in the grandstand were individually printed, mounted, and die-cut, with real flags in their hands (actually their rearview mirrors), which 15/40 then installed individually in 220 feet of bleachers the team built on site. The group then built an international-flag-festooned pony wall in front of the bleachers and a 220-foot-long truss arch behind to hang banners printed with the movie's title treatment and bus shelter art on them as a backdrop. The event used both the El Capitan and Chinese theaters.
