Ontario Place Cinesphere
955 Lakeshore Boulevard West,
Toronto,
ON
M6K 3B9
955 Lakeshore Boulevard West,
Toronto,
ON
M6K 3B9
1 person
favorited this theater
Opened in 1971, the Ontario Place Cinesphere was the world’s first permanent IMAX theatre.
The theater was also capable of projecting both 35MM and 70MM format film. The Cinesphere had a massive 24,000 watt digital sound system, installed for <em>Rolling Stones: At The Max</em>. It was one of the first theaters to offer full stadium seating, and offered one of the larger seating capacities in Toronto.
Film offerings varied from IMAX amd large format documentaries to 2nd run Hollywood, as well as ethnic content such as South Asian and European films.
It was closed on February 1, 2012. It was reopened November 3, 2017.
Contributed by
David Calado
Want to be emailed when a new comment is posted about this theater?
Just login to your account and subscribe to this theater.
Recent comments (view all 8 comments)
This theater is just as amazing today as it was upon opening in 1971. It is part of a complex know as Ontario Place, which is actually 3 man-made islands on the Toronto shoreline. The triodetic-dome structure appears to be rising out of Lake Ontario apart from these islands.
Living in Buffalo at the time, I was a frequent visitor here. One day, I got up the nerve to talk my way into the projection room and was rewarded by not only a complete tour of the working equipment but also obtaining a few frames of a Imax print – which I still have to this day.
The Ontario government closed most of Ontario Place, including the Cinesphere, on February 1, 2012. Interestingly enough, the Cinesphere had just underwent a $2-million renovation the previous year which included the installation of a new IMAX GT 15/70 projector. The park will be closed until 2015, when it will reopen for the Pan Am Games, and then the park will be “redeveloped.”
A real shame…
Unfortunately there wasn’t all that much to see at the Cinesphere aside from a few IMAX films.. The only real main attraction for regular films was when they had the 70MM film festivals or films that were blown up to be shown on that large of a screen.. Much like todays reserved seating in many of the theaters, you had to buy a seat through Ticketmaster that it was like a concert. Jurassic Park was great on that size of canvass.
Tickets for the 70MM Festival could be bought at the Box Office before or at the time of the performance. I never purchased a ticket through Ticketmaster.
The first production in IMAX was North of Superior. See more information about the film here…https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_of_Superior
Does anyone know the location of the DP70s that were installed here?
Apparently, the Cinesphere is part of a revitalization project at Ontario Place, and it is scheduled to be part of TIFF this year as part of its Cinematheque programme. The first film scheduled to be screened is North of Superior, which was the first film shown there in 1971.
http://www.blogto.com/film/2017/08/tiff-reopening-ontario-place-cinesphere/
The cinesphere re-opened on November 3rd 2017. It features a new 60x80 foot screen. They have also installed an imax laser projector and kept the old 15/70 equipment to show prints
Tickets for Ontario Place Cinesphere screenings are sold through Eventbrite. Doesn’t look like there is any reserved seating, so I guess it’s a free-for-all?