Empire Theatres Rideau Centre
50 Rideau Street,
Ottawa,
ON
K1N 9J7
50 Rideau Street,
Ottawa,
ON
K1N 9J7
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French-language grand opening ad from Le Droit posted.
This opened on March 18th, 1983 (Correction). The grand opening ad below:
Rideau centre cinemas opening Fri, Mar 18, 1983 – 50 · The Ottawa Citizen (Ottawa, Ontario, Canada) · Newspapers.com
“The Rocketeer” showed at the Rideau Centre in 70mm 6-Track THX Dolby Stereo SR beginning on Friday June 21, 1991 (the film’s nationwide release date).
It was originally a Famous Players theatre upon opening. Like David said, Empire took it over after Cineplex bought FP and had to divest certain theatres. What I’ve always wondered is WHY did Empire get both this and World Exchange? Shouldn’t one have been kept by Cineplex to avoid being a monopoly downtown? Wasn’t that the point of Cineplex having to sell off competing locations?
David this closed in March.
Famous Players Canadian Corporation did build and operate this very plain triple theatre for a few years. Empire Theatres took this over when Cineplex bought Famous Players and had to divest of a few situations. Now that Cineplex has bought Empire Theatres, this will now be a Cineplex theatre. I don’t believe Cinelex will operate this theatre too long, because it is not modern enough for today’s ompetitive theatres. When Empire operated this they sold the tickets at the candy bar which is very low class.
2003 photo and grand opening ad uploaded.
That’s when they close the Empress Walk in Toronto. I wonder if there are others?
Empire Rideau Centre Cinemas will be closed as of March 22, 2013 according to the Empire Theatres website.
Famous Players did indeed originally run the Rideau Centre Cinemas, not Cineplex (at least not until Cineplex briefly took it over after acquiring FP until it turned the theatre over to Empire).
I must correct Mr. Hopkinson’s description above… Rideau Centre Cinemas was NOT built on the site of the old Rideau Theatre. The Rideau Theatre was located at 160 Rideau Street; its building still stands today and is divided into various retail stores.
I thought Rideau Centre was opened by Famous Players and only became Cineplex when they took over FP? Then were sold to Empire when Cineplex had to divest itself of certain locations.