Bankers Hall Cinemas

315 8th Avenue SW,
Calgary, AB T2P 1C4

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Additional Info

Previously operated by: Alliance Atlantis Cinemas, Famous Players

Functions: Retail

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Box office

Famous Players opened the Bankers Hall Cinemas on March 16, 1990. The largest of the complex’s five theatres seated 367, while theatres 2 and 3 each seated 202 and theatres 4 and 5 each seated 190, for a total of 1,151 seats.

Famous Players handed over the lease to the Bankers Hall Cinemas to the Alliance Atlantis Cinemas chain in 2000. The theatre closed in 2001 and its space has since been renovated for other uses.

Contributed by Mark

Recent comments (view all 2 comments)

Jason Whyte
Jason Whyte on March 29, 2014 at 3:10 pm

I remember going to this Famous Players location for a visit here on vacation in 1999 and loving it. It was my first visit to the city and I recall navigating through Calgary’s Plus 15 system and wound up here, eventually watching the silly Hugh Grant movie “Mickey Blue Eyes”.

The theater entrance was on the top floor of Bankers Hall, navigated through some escalators. It had a free-standing box office before you entered the cinema.

I watched “Mickey Blue Eyes” in screen #2 and as I walked in I was rather surprised to discover this traditional Famous Players theater featured stadium seating! Immediately this made me think this cinema was a bizarre halfway between a traditional FP build and a Silvercity, which were just becoming popular in Canada at the time.

Obviously due to the design of the place and being on the top floor of the Bankers Hall building gave them reason to have great sight lines between each row. This theater was also part of the late 80’s FP design where each theater had its own name (“Bijou”, “Rialto” etc) and there are still a few of these surviving in Canada.

This was a nice Famous Players location in downtown Calgary and shame to see that it barely survived over a decade. Just wish there were actual pictures of this cinema somewhere.

rivest266
rivest266 on October 16, 2018 at 1:50 pm

This opened on March 16th, 1990. Grand opening ad posted.

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