Empire Granville 7 Cinemas
855 Granville Street,
Vancouver,
BC
V6Z 1K7
855 Granville Street,
Vancouver,
BC
V6Z 1K7
4 people
favorited this theater
This is the last bastion of glory on Vancouver’s Theatre Row. In the 1940’s and 1950’s, there were a minimum of 20 movie theatres along several blocks of Granville Street. Now, in 2007, there is only one left. It is appropriately named the Granville. It was Cineplex Odeon’s mid-1980’s seven screen showpiece that was built to replace the Coronet Twin and the Odeon. (The latter is now the Plaza nightclub.)
In 2006 it became a discount theatre. It shows second run films and artsy/obscure fare. It is still a very beautiful theatre and well worth a trip downtown. It closed on November 4, 2012.
Contributed by
Loralei
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Recent comments (view all 19 comments)
2 certainly did have 70mm capability at one point and might have acted as a move-over from, but most of the action was in #7 which still has the THX “wall” and all outstanding sound quality, just not actual certification anymore.
According to Bill Kretzel’s Cinerama and Large-Frame Motion Picture Exhibition in Canada, the 70mm bookings at GRANVILLE were:
DIE HARD (1988)
THE BIG BLUE (1988)
THE ABYSS (1989)
EDWARD SCISSORHANDS (1990)
BACKDRAFT (1991, moveover booking)
APOCALYPSE NOW (1992 re-issue)
FAR AND AWAY (1992)
HOFFA (1992)
HOWARDS END (1993 moveover booking)
GERONIMO: AN AMERICAN LEGEND (1993)
Note that DIE HARD and THE BIG BLUE were in release at the same time, confirming that two separate screens in the complex were equipped to handle 70mm presentation.
Die Hard and The Big Blue were released a month apart, they might not have been at Granville at the same time.
Michael is still right, two screens were equiped for 70mm presentation. The projectors for auditoriums 2 and 7 are the original Victoria 8’s by Cinemeccanica from the building’s opening and still have sprockets and rollers that can accomodate both 70mm and 35mm film, but not enough equipment to play 70mm today.
Cineplex built Granville over three properties: the Palms Hotel as the south end, the Coronet Theatre as the north end, and miscellaneous store x that was in between.
The Palms Hotel is interesting in its own right as it was originally built in the early 20th century, then called ‘Almond Block’. The facade is currently protected as heritage. The relief on the north facade (dubbed “The Dancer”, from the days of the Paradise Theatre) is considered heritage, but has no protection and can be demolished.
The only equipment I’m aware of that is missing is the Magnetic penthouses from the Vic 8s. Why they were removed? I don’t know. The projectors do not have turrets installed on them, which is a common modification to do to these projectors, in which the magnetic heads have to be removed for real estate reasons.
2404 seats, with the breakdown – from auditorium #1 through #7 – as follows: 294/338/329/324/225/230/664.
I visited Vancouver in 1996 and saw The Cable Guy at the Granville. A nice memory.
Empire Granville 7 will be closing on Sunday, November 4th, 2012 after a South Asian film festival rental. This leaves downtown Vancouver with only TWO cinemas (Scotiabank 9 and International Village 12, both Cineplex) as of November.
Sad to hear about the Granville 7, the only one left on the once thriving “theatre row” on Granville st. Of all the theatres I’ve been to in Vancouver, I never did get to this one. Now downtown Vancouver will be just like downtown Chicago and Boston which only has 2 multiplex locations in each city. End of an era I guess.
Status should read closed. The theatre closed is doors on November 4.
Granville 7 cinema closure threatens Vancouver International Film Festival
Here is a link for a terrific website showing the dismantling of the Granville Seven.
WARNING: The following pictures contain graphic images that will offend anyone who loved this theatre.
http://adventuresinmikeslife.blogspot.ca/2012/11/granville-7-theater-interior-demolition.html