Rainbow Cinemas Willowdale
1800 Sheppard Avenue,
Toronto,
ON
M2J 5A7
1800 Sheppard Avenue,
Toronto,
ON
M2J 5A7
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Opened in 1988, an eight-screen multiplex located above the food court in Fairview Mall. Was once operated by Cineplex Odeon, but closed in the late-1990’s. It was reopened in 2001 as the flagship location for the new Rainbow Cinemas chain. Rainbow Cinemas showed first-run films, usually at a discounted price.
It was closed in January 2008.
Contributed by
Paul Brechbuhler
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Recent comments (view all 9 comments)
This Rainbow closed on Jan 11, 2008 because the landlords have kicked them out in flavor of Cineplex returning to the mall. This is will be interesting because of the limited space of the cinemas and how Cineplex going to enlarge the theaters. Will it be a Silvercity similar to Oakville? I will not be surprised if it is a Silvercity since another Silvercity have been sold to Empire Theaters. The nearest Silvercity is located in Richmond Hill. There are two Cineplex Odeons at Eglinton Square and at Sheppard and Yonge. Up north in Markham is another Cineplex Odeon. This theater is scheduled to open at the end of this year.
I am right, it is a Silvercity. www.marketwire.com/mw/release.do?id=811356
That will be nice to have a brand new theatre complex at Fairview. The Rainbow cinemas were perfectly fine, but of course they didn’t have the standard stadium seating and curved screens that all the latest have. When Fairview Mall first opened in 1970, it had one large cinema in what was then the NW corner of the mall, that was later twinned. Too bad though that along Sheppard Ave to the west that the Bayview Village 4 closed which were perfect for the kind of independent, art type films they showed. Thought for sure that someone else would have opened them up again. They were out of the way, in the basement of the mall, so can’t imagine what they’ll use the space for now.
I think the landlords of Bayview Village kicked out Atlantis Alliance for some local business person who wants to open a spa, something like that. I think the new Silvercity will help make up the lost of Bayview Village or more likely the old Victoria Terrace. The Rainbow cinemas were fine but not to Cadillac Fairview who thinks it is out of date, 80’s style and the mall is going under a renovation and redevelopment project.
Exctly Im Not Famous, i think Cadillac Fairview wanted a more upscale, up to date cinema complex for the “new” Fairview Mall. The Victoria Terrace was also a very nice theatre complex especially that nice lobby with the big windows looking out over the parking lot. That became a gym I believe. It’s nice to know though that Fairview will not be without a theatre but will be getting a newer more modern one.
This was the last projection booth I ever worked, in July of 1999 when it was still a Cineplex-Odeon booth. When my booth at the Showcase closed, they moved the ORC platter and Vic-8 projector into auditorium #1 at Fairview. The picture was huge and stunning. Booths 2-6 were Simplex heads, Balco platters and somewhat-unique CPA-10 automations.
Only managed to make it up to the Fairview Rainbow once and it defintely served its purpose and was a nice enough discount theatre but with all of the renovations the mall was going through at the time (this was back in 2006) I am not surprised Rainbow got kicked out and Cineplex/Famous took the property back. Have to make the trek up there at some point to see what they managed to do with the space, I imagine they started almost from scratch but…..
Yes, the cinemas were all rebuilt from scratch.
I uploaded the 1988 grand opening ad.