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

Well things do change, and other cliches. As a bit of a lover of off-beat film, I am not going to cry too much over this. The point has been correctly made that the place was in decline. I suspect it might have closed four or five years ago, if Ryerson had not been using it as lecture rooms.

We have the Royal, which seems exceptionally willing to do small festivals, and the Bloor. The Cumberland is still around, at least for now. On a slightly different level, Cinematheque continues to offer stuff you won't see elsewhere.
 
I wonder what retailer would want to go in there. Massive ground floor area with a limited street frontage? There's already a plethora of grocery stores in the area (and add one more for the eventual Loblaws). I don't think it's big enough for a Home Depot. Maybe a bowling alley? It might be easier to lease as a small-scale mall, especially if they could convince the hotel next door to open a ground level connection into the lobby.

I do hope it's some kind of entertainment draw that goes in there, because the strip could use something to bring people to Carlton. It's been really nice seeing even the small-ish crowds coming out for Battle of the Blades
 
This was my favourite theatre :-(

I hate Hollywood, and saw maybe 50% of my movies here, since coming to Toronto three years ago. I loved the deadness of the lobby... it was like being in a living room... I loved the intimacy of the theatres themselves. They were complete shite, but had a lot of character.

Sad.
 
It's quite sad that there are really no small neighbourhood theatres left. It's all about big box megaplexes.
 
I really liked the Carlton (and the Cumberland) but I do think the AMC has done a somewhat decent job of showing smaller films and foreign stuff. Right now they've got the Coens's "A Serious Man" and "AJAB PREM KI GHAZAB KAHANI", a movie with the most hilarious summary you'll ever read.
 
Would this not be a good opportunity for Rainbow cinemas to bring in a new crowd? I'm assuming it's still there right next to the St Lawrence market. They have plenty of screens and always seemed to pull in a good crowd for the blockbusters - however a number of shows I've seen there only had a couple of spectators. Why not have a few of the auditoriums run these type of movies?
 
What I liked about the Carlton is that it was located in The Gay Village and always had some gay films playing, so whenever I wanted to see a little gay film, I'd go there and go to a Church Street bar afterwards. Not only is it a loss for independent film, it's also a loss for The Gay Village. I can't see myself going to the Beaches to see a gay film. For me it's a huge loss. Yes, I watch those little gay films online but I don't enjoy them half as much as when I'd go to the Carton. The men in the audience were always part of the enjoyment. It was always a fun night out for me and my friends.
 
Cast_Member said:
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.
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Csnada Square was closed for a while back in the early 2000s.
 
According to various rumours........

Cineplex (pre-merger) back when it was filing for bankruptcy broke the lease of almost every venue which wasn't in the black.

The Carlton was saved by the landlord cutting and restructuring the rent; taking a cut of the gross instead of a flat-fee rent.

That allowed Cineplex to reopen.

While C-Square was saved by Famous Players (pre-merger) for a different reason, having to do with movie zoning rights and run schedules.

Essentially, when a chain gets a movie in a certain area exclusively, they also often commit to a minimum run time for the movie in that zone (usually 3-weeks or more from opening).

Famous had their new Silver City but were having to keep dog movies (poor box office performers around) so as not to breach their conditions; Canada Square allowed them to use a few screens to move underperformers across the street.
 
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It was sort of inevitable. There is no way these smaller venues could compete with multiplexes and they were never able to differentiate themselves enough in terms of content. If you look at what the Carlton is playing right now, they are all basically "Hollywood movies" anyways, or maybe from the art house subsidiary of a Hollywood studio. I'm not even an A/V freak but the quality of these cinemas was on balance worse than comparable multiplexes and not cheap enough to justify it.

I wonder if it would be possible to create like, personal multiplexes? Whenever I went into the Carlton, there was never really a "full house." Even 50% occupancy seemed rare. Maybe it would make sense to create dozens of smaller cinemas, each with maybe a dozen seats and a 60-70" screen. That would seem much closer to the actual demand for art house film. If they integrated it with decent food and drink (i.e. not 6$ popcorn) it would seem like a fairly decent alternative to the home video.
 
prosperegal said:
Csnada Square was closed for a while back in the early 2000s.
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Like Northern Light said, Canada Square was reopened by Famous Players and still exist under Cineplex management. If Rio Can expands their property on their Yonge and Eglinton location, this would be an opportunity for Cineplex to add more screens to their Silvercity there. Canada Square would close and Cineplex would retire the Famous Players brand forever. This is my opinion.
 
Maybe it would make sense to create dozens of smaller cinemas, each with maybe a dozen seats and a 60-70" screen. That would seem much closer to the actual demand for art house film. If they integrated it with decent food and drink (i.e. not 6$ popcorn) it would seem like a fairly decent alternative to the home video.
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This reminded me of the DVD rooms in Korea... for $10 or so you get a small room with a giant screen (about 100 inches or so) and booming sound system... There's usually a strange sofa/bed combination so you can get comfortable to watch the movie. Of course a certain percentage of users never actually watch the movie...
 
The future for 'art house' movies is likely for them to skip the theatre altogether and go straight to On-Demand television. This is already happening with some releases. (Bubble by Soderbergh is the example I remember.)
 
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