Cinema One was a glorious room. It was anywhere between 1031 and 1012 seats over the years (I believe some seats were removed for more wheelchair spots), and it pretty much filled up every Friday and Saturday night, no matter what the movie. Huge screen, incredible SRD sound system, the seats were okay and it was always a treat to see a movie there.
Just don’t let anyone tall sit in front of you…the sight lines were TERRIBLE in that cinema, and I think the unofficial rule over the years was for everyone to “lean down” when they saw a flick there. :)
It certainly is a twin. Sean’s post and Mike Rivest’s movie-theatre.org make mention a third screen was added, but there’s no visual evidence in this dump there ever was a third screen.
Has this cinema ever had a third screen? I visited this cinema for the first time this September and there was no evidence a third screen ever existed here (and if it went up in 1995, it would certainly still be here). This is a twin cinema through and through.
There IS evidence of obvious twinning, as both cinemas are long and narrow, with the dredded centre aisle, broken seats and a small common-width 1.85 screen. Both screens are still mono. I submitted photos to Cinematour and I hope they’ll go up soon.
As of right now, this place is a dump even though I was told the lobby was just renovated. New seating will be put in place this December (interestingly enough, #1 has just ONE of these new seats right in the back next to the wheelchair spot) and I hope they centre all the seats with an aisle around instead of right down the middle.
Cinemas 5 & 6 are from the old Coronet house. And yes, they were HEAVILY renovated as these two are the smallest in the complex. From what I have been told, the Coronet was a much larger theater, but during the Cineplex Odeon renovations they needed proper exiting from the top level #7 (the largest former THX house, at 664 seats) which cut drastically into the back of what is now the #5 cinema. If you look very closely in #6 you can still see some of the old Coronet details, even though they have been painted over.
This cinema is the main venue for the annual Vancouver International Film Festival and has far more seats than Scotiabank or Tinseltown. Every year I visit and photograph the heck out of this theater (many of the Cinematour photos Tim refers to are from my old digital camera!) and it is still a fun place to see a movie. Empire Theaters took over for Cineplex Odeon in 2005, yet you set foot in the building and NOTHING has changed. Same typical late 80’s Cineplex Odeon build. It’s a bit run-down, and many of the screens Dolby SR only. With that said, the Empire staff this year were incredible; very friendly and down to earth, but also hard workers.
It is also NOT a second run house. It charges $7.99 for a film and runs art house, smaller product along with mainstream product that the nearby Scotiabank and Tinseltown have stopped running, but it is still under first run policy.
Does anyone know if this cinema is still open? I can’t find any showtimes online
I visited this cinema on vacation last year and loved the huge screen, good (but not great) sound, comfy seats, sharp projection and a great price for rep cinema. It’s a great escape from reality. :)
Although I’ve never been to Toronto, this cinema looked flat out amazing and it is a crime that it ever closed, let alone the horrible accident that cost a human life. The $700,000 cost to make this place accessible (does a ramp and a bathroom really cost that much?) to wheelchairs also screams of stupidity.
Here is a Flickr set of photos, as well as a Live Journal post that explains the closing. Does anyone have any more photos? Someone, somewhere, has to have photos of the massive screen in Uptown 1.
Furthermore, what were the two downstairs cinemas like? Were the screens large?
Just how the HELL are they going to make digital projection watchable on that large of a screen? I even find 2k digital projection to be lousy on a medium size cinema screen!
It’s just that the cinemas themselves leave little to the imagination. Yeah, the lobby in this cinema is just as pretty as the Colossus and Scotiabank closer to me in Vancouver, but the auditoriums themselves are just black boxes with screens too close to the seats.
I also find it kind of crazy that this cinema sits across a highway from the AMC Interchange 30. 49 screens total!!!
Jurassic Park was shot in 1.85:1, not in the Cinemascope format. There were also no 70mm blow ups made for the film either, although extremely likely the North Hill was the first DTS venue in Calgary and it also played 70mm in its earlier years. I also doubt this cinema ever played any true three-strip Cinerama, rather 70mm prints projected through a curved lens, as I remember the auditorium did not have the Able and Charlie booth boxes on the sides nor any indiction that they were ever there.
I remember visiting this cinema while on vacation in August, 1999 a few weeks before it closed. It was a dreary, boring looking cinema on the outside at that point, as the adjacent mall was under heavy construction. The lobby was lifeless and drab, with hardly any staff around. “Star Wars Episode One” was playing there throughout the summer. The projector appeared to be on its last knees, as the image was bouncing like crazy (literally no tension in the gate) and staff refused to fix it when I asked because the cinema was about to close. The screen was also notoriously small after the original screen was removed. It was a common-width screen, which meant 1.85:1 films occupied a larger image area and the screen dropped down for scope features. “Episode 1” was shot in anamorphic, and it was kind of depressing seeing such a small, bouncy image in such a large room.
That said, the DTS sound was mind-blowingly awesome and probably the best sound I’ve ever heard in a non-IMAX theatre. Dialogue was clear, surrounds were powerful and effects filled the room, and the bass was deep, thunderous and rumbled the seats. It made up for what was a slightly disappointing single-screen cinema that could have been so much more.
Oh boy, you need to BE at a Drafthouse screening. It’s like no other moviegoing experience currently in the world. Besides the food and the drinks, they also strictly enforce their no-talking and cell phone policy, which has helped keep their sales up. The company has opened cinemas in Houston and San Antonio and no doubt they want to make a big expansion. So why not LA?
The National has plenty of room for kitchen and service space, along with providing, like you said, VIP sections and special seating. It might take that seat count from 1,100 down to about 400-500 or so, but as long as you kept that screen it would be worth it!
The Studio Movie Grills in the Dallas area appear, at least to me, to be more of a sports bar venue. I’d lean more towards the Drafthouse concept which I think would benefit greatly from the nearby campus who are looking for a fun night out.
As for the cinema’s current significance, I have an article I posted on efilmcritic.com about the National (the link is posted far up on this page) to contribute.
How familiar are you with the Alamo Drafthouse in Austin? (www.originalalamo.com) They are just opening their new location on 6th street in Austin this week, but if they were ever looking for a move out to the west coast, THIS would be the venue to do it in.
Drinks, specialty films run near the UCLA campus? The Alamo has been very good in promoting their product in their home city, so I’m sure they could promote around LA and the campus. Say it with me now…The Alamo Drafthouse at the National…The Alamo Drafthouse at the National…
‘“Paris, Je T’aime” has been booked at the National begining today.’
A wonderful film (saw it at last year’s Vancouver International Film Festival) and one that would look and sound just amazing at the National. Go check it out!
Another huge thanks to Michael for the “master list” of films that played the National. Some bizarro choices there. I’d also love to read that article.
I’m curious if anyone has visited the re-opened National? If it’s true that it’s only going to be open another year, that might be reason enough to drag myself and my Canon Rebel XTi cam down to LA. ;)
“This theatre still exists and it is own by Empire Theatres. The theatre is pretty lucky not get demolished.”
The former Cineplex Odeon Granville 7 across the street has been bought by Empire Theatres and is still up and running, although attendance there has been sparse due to the construction on Granville and everyone would rather see a movie at the Paramount a few blocks away.
Capitol 6 is in the process of being demolished as the new Skytrain line is being built right beneath it. The property next to it has been cleared and you can see the back of the theatres from Granville now.
Part of downtown Victoria’s old “Theatre Row” which also contained the Haida, the Odeon and the Capitol. The last two theatres still stand as first-run multiplexes by Cineplex Odeon and Empire Theatres, respectively.
Building has been completely demolished and a new office building stands in its place.
Was a very good theatre in the day. Many seats, huge screens and also ran 70mm/6 track engagements.
I have seen those pictures on the CT site (I know you from film-tech as well as your other posts of San Francisco cinemas) and I saw “Brokeback Mountain” on the opposite (left) cinema than the one pictured. Simply hold up a mirror to that shot and it gives you the idea of what it looks like. I poked my head into the other cinema for a moment and it was a true mirrored cinema. Sometimes twin-plexes will have a larger cinema than the other, but not in this case.
All of those movies you mentioned are all scope 2.39 films, so I guess you would have had to sit in the third or fourth row to get a good view! I am also surprised that Lucas would consider this a place to screen SW:Ep1. The DTS and analog sound aren’t very good, the image bleeds on all four corners of the screen and they need to turn the ceiling lights down further for the feature (on dark scenes it is dim in there and you notice the lights rather quickly).
I also forgot in the first post to mention a few things I liked about the place: the lobby is gorgeous, there is no annoying automation present (the lights stayed down for most of the credits), the staff were very nice and it was spotless when I visited. You can tell the people running the place do like to take care of it. Would be nice to upgrade the screen and projection first, and then the position of those seats. ;)
(Note: I also visited the Daly City 20 and made a comment on here; also a nice place to see a movie. Hopefully on my next visit I will check out some other SF landmarks.)
(Sorry, got cut off) Does anyone have pictures of the original auditorium? I’m sure it was a nice place to see a movie. But I’m sure more fans of indie-fare will flock down to the Embarcadero or the Balboa rather than this place.
What a bizarre theatre. I was here on vacation in December ‘05 when “Brokeback Mountain” was here on both twinned auditoriums. The twinned-plex is far too narrow and the screens are small even at 1.85 common width. (Imagine watching a scope movie there on even smaller of a screen!) And as Eric Hooper mentioned, the (still comfy) seats were not rearranged so watching your movie with your head constantly turned was annoying.
(With that said, my dad and I watched the film in seats right behind some wheelchair spots, so the ample legroom was great! All that was missing were stools.)
DTS sound is also installed, although since this is an art house, most of the films will probably be in Dolby Stereo.
I guess it survives as a art-house double now. I can’t imagine seeing a big-budget movie in this place.
I visited the Daly City 20 back in December, 2005 for a screening of “Munich” on screen #3. And while I am not a huge fan of megaplexes, this is a beautifully designed theatre. Tickets are purchased at outside kiosks and you go up an escalator to find 10 cinemas in two wings.
The projection and sound quality (THX/SR-D) was superb on #3, even though it was a medium sized cinema. I’m sure that if it this good in here, it will be even better in the largest cinemas. Might have something to do with the fact that THX and Dolby are in San Francisco? ;)
I also believe that there are “self-serve” concessions here, although I didn’t get to visit them.
Cinema One was a glorious room. It was anywhere between 1031 and 1012 seats over the years (I believe some seats were removed for more wheelchair spots), and it pretty much filled up every Friday and Saturday night, no matter what the movie. Huge screen, incredible SRD sound system, the seats were okay and it was always a treat to see a movie there.
Just don’t let anyone tall sit in front of you…the sight lines were TERRIBLE in that cinema, and I think the unofficial rule over the years was for everyone to “lean down” when they saw a flick there. :)
It certainly is a twin. Sean’s post and Mike Rivest’s movie-theatre.org make mention a third screen was added, but there’s no visual evidence in this dump there ever was a third screen.
Has this cinema ever had a third screen? I visited this cinema for the first time this September and there was no evidence a third screen ever existed here (and if it went up in 1995, it would certainly still be here). This is a twin cinema through and through.
There IS evidence of obvious twinning, as both cinemas are long and narrow, with the dredded centre aisle, broken seats and a small common-width 1.85 screen. Both screens are still mono. I submitted photos to Cinematour and I hope they’ll go up soon.
As of right now, this place is a dump even though I was told the lobby was just renovated. New seating will be put in place this December (interestingly enough, #1 has just ONE of these new seats right in the back next to the wheelchair spot) and I hope they centre all the seats with an aisle around instead of right down the middle.
Cinemas 5 & 6 are from the old Coronet house. And yes, they were HEAVILY renovated as these two are the smallest in the complex. From what I have been told, the Coronet was a much larger theater, but during the Cineplex Odeon renovations they needed proper exiting from the top level #7 (the largest former THX house, at 664 seats) which cut drastically into the back of what is now the #5 cinema. If you look very closely in #6 you can still see some of the old Coronet details, even though they have been painted over.
This cinema is the main venue for the annual Vancouver International Film Festival and has far more seats than Scotiabank or Tinseltown. Every year I visit and photograph the heck out of this theater (many of the Cinematour photos Tim refers to are from my old digital camera!) and it is still a fun place to see a movie. Empire Theaters took over for Cineplex Odeon in 2005, yet you set foot in the building and NOTHING has changed. Same typical late 80’s Cineplex Odeon build. It’s a bit run-down, and many of the screens Dolby SR only. With that said, the Empire staff this year were incredible; very friendly and down to earth, but also hard workers.
It is also NOT a second run house. It charges $7.99 for a film and runs art house, smaller product along with mainstream product that the nearby Scotiabank and Tinseltown have stopped running, but it is still under first run policy.
Does anyone know if this cinema is still open? I can’t find any showtimes online
I visited this cinema on vacation last year and loved the huge screen, good (but not great) sound, comfy seats, sharp projection and a great price for rep cinema. It’s a great escape from reality. :)
Here is a nice photostream on Cinematour. I also have some photos of the Odeon, my favorite cinema in Victoria, to add to this site soon.
Although I’ve never been to Toronto, this cinema looked flat out amazing and it is a crime that it ever closed, let alone the horrible accident that cost a human life. The $700,000 cost to make this place accessible (does a ramp and a bathroom really cost that much?) to wheelchairs also screams of stupidity.
Here is a Flickr set of photos, as well as a Live Journal post that explains the closing. Does anyone have any more photos? Someone, somewhere, has to have photos of the massive screen in Uptown 1.
Furthermore, what were the two downstairs cinemas like? Were the screens large?
Very cool! Just a hair under the Alamo Drafthouse’s coolness, but I could definitely enjoy a movie in couchy comfiness.
Just how the HELL are they going to make digital projection watchable on that large of a screen? I even find 2k digital projection to be lousy on a medium size cinema screen!
It’s just that the cinemas themselves leave little to the imagination. Yeah, the lobby in this cinema is just as pretty as the Colossus and Scotiabank closer to me in Vancouver, but the auditoriums themselves are just black boxes with screens too close to the seats.
I also find it kind of crazy that this cinema sits across a highway from the AMC Interchange 30. 49 screens total!!!
Jurassic Park was shot in 1.85:1, not in the Cinemascope format. There were also no 70mm blow ups made for the film either, although extremely likely the North Hill was the first DTS venue in Calgary and it also played 70mm in its earlier years. I also doubt this cinema ever played any true three-strip Cinerama, rather 70mm prints projected through a curved lens, as I remember the auditorium did not have the Able and Charlie booth boxes on the sides nor any indiction that they were ever there.
I remember visiting this cinema while on vacation in August, 1999 a few weeks before it closed. It was a dreary, boring looking cinema on the outside at that point, as the adjacent mall was under heavy construction. The lobby was lifeless and drab, with hardly any staff around. “Star Wars Episode One” was playing there throughout the summer. The projector appeared to be on its last knees, as the image was bouncing like crazy (literally no tension in the gate) and staff refused to fix it when I asked because the cinema was about to close. The screen was also notoriously small after the original screen was removed. It was a common-width screen, which meant 1.85:1 films occupied a larger image area and the screen dropped down for scope features. “Episode 1” was shot in anamorphic, and it was kind of depressing seeing such a small, bouncy image in such a large room.
That said, the DTS sound was mind-blowingly awesome and probably the best sound I’ve ever heard in a non-IMAX theatre. Dialogue was clear, surrounds were powerful and effects filled the room, and the bass was deep, thunderous and rumbled the seats. It made up for what was a slightly disappointing single-screen cinema that could have been so much more.
In Vancouver, all single screens first-run:
The Rio
Ridge
Park
Van East
Dunbar
Rep houses:
Denman Place
Hollywood
Oh boy, you need to BE at a Drafthouse screening. It’s like no other moviegoing experience currently in the world. Besides the food and the drinks, they also strictly enforce their no-talking and cell phone policy, which has helped keep their sales up. The company has opened cinemas in Houston and San Antonio and no doubt they want to make a big expansion. So why not LA?
The National has plenty of room for kitchen and service space, along with providing, like you said, VIP sections and special seating. It might take that seat count from 1,100 down to about 400-500 or so, but as long as you kept that screen it would be worth it!
The Studio Movie Grills in the Dallas area appear, at least to me, to be more of a sports bar venue. I’d lean more towards the Drafthouse concept which I think would benefit greatly from the nearby campus who are looking for a fun night out.
As for the cinema’s current significance, I have an article I posted on efilmcritic.com about the National (the link is posted far up on this page) to contribute.
Roadshow,
How familiar are you with the Alamo Drafthouse in Austin? (www.originalalamo.com) They are just opening their new location on 6th street in Austin this week, but if they were ever looking for a move out to the west coast, THIS would be the venue to do it in.
Drinks, specialty films run near the UCLA campus? The Alamo has been very good in promoting their product in their home city, so I’m sure they could promote around LA and the campus. Say it with me now…The Alamo Drafthouse at the National…The Alamo Drafthouse at the National…
‘“Paris, Je T’aime” has been booked at the National begining today.’
A wonderful film (saw it at last year’s Vancouver International Film Festival) and one that would look and sound just amazing at the National. Go check it out!
Another huge thanks to Michael for the “master list” of films that played the National. Some bizarro choices there. I’d also love to read that article.
I’m curious if anyone has visited the re-opened National? If it’s true that it’s only going to be open another year, that might be reason enough to drag myself and my Canon Rebel XTi cam down to LA. ;)
Alamo Drafthouse, you COULD move out west and set up shop here… ;)
An article I posted earlier this week on the Mann’s closing:
View link
An article I posted earlier this week on the Mann’s closing:
View link
“This theatre still exists and it is own by Empire Theatres. The theatre is pretty lucky not get demolished.”
The former Cineplex Odeon Granville 7 across the street has been bought by Empire Theatres and is still up and running, although attendance there has been sparse due to the construction on Granville and everyone would rather see a movie at the Paramount a few blocks away.
Capitol 6 is in the process of being demolished as the new Skytrain line is being built right beneath it. The property next to it has been cleared and you can see the back of the theatres from Granville now.
Really sad as the Capitol had the best location.
Jason
Part of downtown Victoria’s old “Theatre Row” which also contained the Haida, the Odeon and the Capitol. The last two theatres still stand as first-run multiplexes by Cineplex Odeon and Empire Theatres, respectively.
Building has been completely demolished and a new office building stands in its place.
Was a very good theatre in the day. Many seats, huge screens and also ran 70mm/6 track engagements.
Hi Eric,
I have seen those pictures on the CT site (I know you from film-tech as well as your other posts of San Francisco cinemas) and I saw “Brokeback Mountain” on the opposite (left) cinema than the one pictured. Simply hold up a mirror to that shot and it gives you the idea of what it looks like. I poked my head into the other cinema for a moment and it was a true mirrored cinema. Sometimes twin-plexes will have a larger cinema than the other, but not in this case.
All of those movies you mentioned are all scope 2.39 films, so I guess you would have had to sit in the third or fourth row to get a good view! I am also surprised that Lucas would consider this a place to screen SW:Ep1. The DTS and analog sound aren’t very good, the image bleeds on all four corners of the screen and they need to turn the ceiling lights down further for the feature (on dark scenes it is dim in there and you notice the lights rather quickly).
I also forgot in the first post to mention a few things I liked about the place: the lobby is gorgeous, there is no annoying automation present (the lights stayed down for most of the credits), the staff were very nice and it was spotless when I visited. You can tell the people running the place do like to take care of it. Would be nice to upgrade the screen and projection first, and then the position of those seats. ;)
(Note: I also visited the Daly City 20 and made a comment on here; also a nice place to see a movie. Hopefully on my next visit I will check out some other SF landmarks.)
(Sorry, got cut off) Does anyone have pictures of the original auditorium? I’m sure it was a nice place to see a movie. But I’m sure more fans of indie-fare will flock down to the Embarcadero or the Balboa rather than this place.
What a bizarre theatre. I was here on vacation in December ‘05 when “Brokeback Mountain” was here on both twinned auditoriums. The twinned-plex is far too narrow and the screens are small even at 1.85 common width. (Imagine watching a scope movie there on even smaller of a screen!) And as Eric Hooper mentioned, the (still comfy) seats were not rearranged so watching your movie with your head constantly turned was annoying.
(With that said, my dad and I watched the film in seats right behind some wheelchair spots, so the ample legroom was great! All that was missing were stools.)
DTS sound is also installed, although since this is an art house, most of the films will probably be in Dolby Stereo.
I guess it survives as a art-house double now. I can’t imagine seeing a big-budget movie in this place.
Does anyone have pictures
I visited the Daly City 20 back in December, 2005 for a screening of “Munich” on screen #3. And while I am not a huge fan of megaplexes, this is a beautifully designed theatre. Tickets are purchased at outside kiosks and you go up an escalator to find 10 cinemas in two wings.
The projection and sound quality (THX/SR-D) was superb on #3, even though it was a medium sized cinema. I’m sure that if it this good in here, it will be even better in the largest cinemas. Might have something to do with the fact that THX and Dolby are in San Francisco? ;)
I also believe that there are “self-serve” concessions here, although I didn’t get to visit them.