On a budget, weigh it — TCL Chinese Theatre isn't cheap for what it is.
Free (forecourt); IMAX films ticketed
The one genuinely rewarding stop on this stretch of Hollywood Blvd. The forecourt of the 1927 pagoda is smaller and more intimate than photos suggest — you're crouching among nearly 200 sets of hand- and footprints in cement, and the fun is the specificity: Marilyn Monroe's prints, the wands and Daniel Radcliffe's hands from Harry Potter, R2-D2's wheel tracks. It feels less like a monument and more like a quirky scavenger hunt, which is why it lands better than the surrounding sidewalk. Manage expectations only about the setting — it sits in the thick of the Walk of Fame chaos and crowds.