Carlton Cinema is shutting down... and opening back up again

[barrytron3030]

It's official. The Carlton is done. This is sad for film culture in Toronto. The Carlton showcased art house cinema. Small Canadian movies, foreign films, and American auteurs, like Woody Allen, have lost a home.

In recent years, I saw Bong Joon Ho's "The Host" (featured above) and Canadian Jennifer Baichwal's "Manufactured Landscapes" here, along with countless other brilliant films.

Too Bad.

eye weekly reports: http://www.eyeweekly.com/blog/post/77262--curtain-closes-on-the-carlton

 

[dt_toronto_geek]

This was expected but to read The Carlton Cinemas only have three weeks left is sad, and a huge loss for Toronto's film community. The need for a 6, 7 or 8 screen replacement at 1 Bloor East now becomes more logical and more urgent than ever.

 

[interchange42]

Quite regrettable in one way, but the place has been a hole for years! I have wanted a better place than this or the Cumberland to see art house circuit films for a long time now... but I'm not sure this is going to get us closer to that goal. Maybe the Y-D AMC will up the number of art films playing there?

42

 

[Mustapha]

Horrible news. This was one place I could get away and see a film that wasn't based on a superhero. I recently saw 'Departures' here.

 

[barrytron3030]

Sorry interchange, those theatres will never play art house cinema. the cineplex odeon representative in the eye weekly article expresses almost no lament for the loss of The Carlton. instead of mentioning the sincere boost of artistic cinema the theatre provided, she mentions how it did not meet the gargantuan and philistinistic standards of cineplex's mainstream theatres. The Carlton is not "state-of-the-art," like, oh say, the AMC down the street. Oh please. I'd rather see a beautiful film here than waltz to Etobicoke and have my chairs vibrate and watch a screen the size of the AMC. it's depressing really.

There is, as the article mentions, The Royal, The Bloor, Varsity, and The Cumberland. The Varsity, of course, is more of a hybrid. Oddly enough, you're able to watch "Transformers" and "There Will Be Blood" without leaving the building.

I fear there are only two ways Toronto will be able to enjoy another cinema of this calibre: [1] a very rich person decides to buy The Carlton and spruce it up, or, [2] we wait years until Toronto's film-lover community becomes more populated and more educated (like NYC) and new independent locations surface.

I often pride Toronto on being a city in which film is loved and appreciated, citing the number of both commercial and independent theatres, and the strength of TIFF. However, it seems that my diagnosis was slightly inflated.

 

[barrytron3030]

the globe reports and steals eye weekly's headline: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news...tain-falls-on-carlton-cinemas/article1367419/

looks like the owner of the complex plans on selling it for traditional retail space. Longo's Market, Starbucks, Mac's, or Golden Hanger Dry Cleaning anyone?

from the mouth of cineplex's vice president, this sums everything:

"Asked whether she believed Cineplex would face an outcry by those lamenting the loss of a smaller theatre playing independent or smaller-budget work, Ms. Marshall played down the notion.

'“I think if people were very interested in this theatre, business would not have been declining steadily over the years,” she said."

this is why religion is on the decline.

 

[Cast_Member]

I am totally disappointed about this closure but I highly doubt someone would takeover this theatre. If Cineplex can't make any money on this location, there is no point of buying it. I think the Cumberland and Canada Square would be next.

 

[Torontovibe]

Oh no. This is terrible news. I loved that place and the movies they showed. AMC, no thanks.

 

[Monaco]

I don't understand the local business or demographics, but why wasn't this working?

In Kingston, the Screening Room was always bustling with both students and locals. Played only independent films, although usually a bit later than when the big cities would start showing, and almost always had a new film every week. I think the Screening Room was doing very well since it was always busy - even though it was not state of the art, or even very nice looking or comfortable. Wouldn't these students become some of the young professionals that populate Toronto downtown? Maybe because there is less to do in Kingston? I don't know, but it seems like the demographics of students, young professionals, artistic people, and locals would go for this sort of thing.

 

[kettal]

Another vacant building to go with Maple Leaf Gardens. Anybody else seeing a trend?

 

[Dan416]

I personally won't really miss it. The last movie I saw there was probably like 10 years ago and it was gay film, but I'm afraid I don't really watch hip, independent movies.

I like AMC Yonge & Dundas and I like the Paramount. I like Hollywood Blockbusters. I like watching movies on huge screens. If I wanna watch something on a small screen, I'll watch it on my laptop (for free).

So yeah, I'm totally not the demographic that would lament this loss. Getting the Bell Lightbox next year will offset this loss I'm sure.

 

[dt_toronto_geek]

The Carlton Cinemas were crappy auditoriums when they opened, and crappy 'til the day they close. It was the magical flickering images that were shown on those tiny screens that drew people there for nearly 3 decades and for most people all was forgiven for the great film they screened there. I've been in the Carlton about a dozen times in the past 2 or 3 years and I'll tell why it was declining, no money was being spent to maintain the property. Often one had to make a move or two in order to find a seat with padding that hadn't flattened, missing seat handles, gross washrooms and on more than one occasion I had to get up during the movie to close the cinema door to keep the noise coming through the open door from the auditorium next door that was bleeding into the one I was sitting in. The old Yonge Street grind-houses were cleaner and better maintained than the Carlton cinemas were in the end. The writing was on the wall for the Carlton for years, there were several announcements of it's closing in the last decade. In the end they ran the place on a shoestring budget and I believe people got fed up paying $12 to attend a rundown cinema.
The two big players got out of almost all of their old expensive leases in the last 15 years or sold off the properties that they owned and then built new, super efficient giga-plexes in the middle of parking lots or on inexpensive property that was cheaper to lease and very cost efficient to operate.
What projects onto the screen be damned, it's not much about movies anymore. It's all about the snacks, food and drink that keep these places running now and the Carlton couldn't compete there either because that demographic doesn't spend on concessions like the giga-plex crowds do.
I've seen two Carlton cinemas close on this site now. I was a kid but I remember seeing The Poseidon Adventure at the old Odeon Carlton and it not only WOW'd me but left an indelible impression. The tiny rooms that replaced that palace certainly didn't WOW me or anyone else but the hundreds of films and memories of friends that I sat next to and shared those experiences with will also stay with me.
I'll really miss this place.

 

[adma]

Another vacant building to go with Maple Leaf Gardens. Anybody else seeing a trend?

Except that it's only the cinema vacating, not the building. Condo, you know.

 

[taal]

Another vacant building to go with Maple Leaf Gardens. Anybody else seeing a trend?

How can you possibly see a trend from two completely independent events. This was a long time coming and honestly had nothing to do with the location - these sort of things just don't generate the same amount of attraction they used to - there are still a few other independent theaters around ... in some ways, it's better that they're not owed by cinplex- so in that sense this is good news.

Anyway, I wonder if this will be incorporated into the MLG plan in some way or another - otherwise I see this remaining vacant for sometime.

 

[Northern Light]

There are many thoughtful comments here which I can echo, but hardly do justice too.

In the end it is not the venue per say that's the loss, as the Carlton was probably the least appealing spaces in which to see a movie still operating in Toronto.

But the programming hole creates a giant vacuum.

Bell Light Box will help reduce this somewhat, I imagine, in late 2010, but its only 5 screens as I recall.

The issue for me is the lack of anyone to pick up the slack.

Clearly, Alliance Cinemas, once destined to be Canada's all-art-house chain has only 2 venues left, in all of Canada, and one of them basically eschews the arthouse product.

Its original backers aren't there anymore, and Cineplex clearly caters to this market only as an afterthought at the very best.

There had been past discussions of having a proper mainstream arthouse built new, but none have come to fruition.

Canada Square going to the Alliance brand had been looked at but decided against; and the same w/the Varsity (if a new mainstream cinema had gone into 1 Bloor)

One can only hope that someone will see this is a profitable market and fill the void, eventually; but alas, I am not holding my breath.