Landmark University Heights
3980 Shelbourne Street,
Victoria,
BC
V8N 6J1
3980 Shelbourne Street,
Victoria,
BC
V8N 6J1
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Famous Players University opened on July 2, 1987. Its opening films include Innerspace, Benji the Hunted, Beverly Hills Cop II and Adventures in Babysitting.
Jason, thank you so much for extensively archiving this place with all of your photographs. Looks like a really nice and simple Famous build.
This location, and the entire mall it was inside, has now been demolished for a new condo and retail project. Even though it didn’t look like much on the outside it was a really solid Famous Players build with excellent projection and sound. It’s unlikely a new cinema will be in the new development, which is a shame.
Sadly, according to its official Facebook page, University 4 officially closed today, even though the theater had been closed since Mid-March due to COVID-19.
It had a great run, though! Four different owners over its nearly 33 years of operation. In its heyday in the late 80s and 90s, this really was a great place to see a movie with two large sized theaters and two small ones with excellent projection and sound.
As a reminder, I shot an extensive gallery of photos of the entire complex a few years ago. Please take a look through as it really is one of my favourite cinemas. Even though it was tiny and tucked in the basement of a dead mall it still had a great charm to it. It will be missed!
This opened on July 2nd, 1987. Grand opening ad:
University Cinemas 4 opening Thu, Jul 2, 1987 – 26 · Times Colonist (Victoria, British Columbia, Canada) · Newspapers.com
BIG UPDATE: Added nearly 100 photos of University 4 Cinemas including exterior, lobby and extensive shots of all four cinemas. A mixture of Canon 60D and cell phone pics, depending on the vantage point! Enjoy!
This theatre should be renamed as the Landmark University Heights. Landmark Cinemas took over its operations on October 31, 2013 after the Empire chain ceased operations two days earlier on October 29.
Plans have just been announced by the Empire chain to sell the University Heights theatre to Landmark Cinemas as part of Empire’s exit from the theatre business. Story below:
Empire selling University Heights theatres, uncertain future for downtown’s Capitol Six