Cinema Cineplex Forum

LABcrab on June 11, 2021 at 9:47 pm

The grand opening for Cinémas VIP Forum will be on June 18, 2021. The province will be in the yellow zone. I added a photo of the lounge from last month.

There will continue to be 22 cinemas. The current layout is the same as when I visited in May 2021: • Main floor: Cinemas 1 to 3 (1 and 2 are regular, 3 is UltraAVX) • Basement: Cinemas 4 to 10 (4 is regular, the others were renamed VIP 1 to VIP 5, plus one unnumbered IMAX) • Top floor: Cinemas 11 to 22 (all regular)

The small arcade, and abandoned traditional concession stand, were removed to make way for Cinémas VIP. Sadly, the hockey rink decorations (movie quotes such as « Lance et Compte! ») were also removed. Washrooms were renovated as well, with improved VIP decor. There is an outside circular path, separate from Cinémas VIP, to access the washrooms, IMAX and regular Cinema 4.

To answer earlier comments from this year, for the top floor, only one escalator exists: from main to top. Exit only doors on the top floor lead to non-Cineplex stairs, escalators, and elevators used for the rest of the forum. The only way to access lower floors without exiting Cineplex is by using the Cineplex elevator.

AMC built three concession stands, one on each floor, but Cineplex only kept the main floor stand open. With 12 cinemas on the top floor, which only has a few vending machines now, this can be a hassle! That said, I’m happy that the basement now has snacks.

Jason Whyte on January 7, 2021 at 7:32 am

Hopefully after the COVID pandemic I can make a trip to Montreal as I have always wanted to visit this theater and the existing movie houses downtown. I could have only imagined if AMC went ahead and actually built a 7,300 (!) seat 30-plex in the forum, as the current 22 screen theater only has about 4000 seats or so. To answer Corus, they still want to keep both locations so they can push their Premium Experience offerings like VIP, Ultra AVX, IMAX and possibly even future experiences like more gaming, event cinema screenings etc.

Does anyone know what the current screen count would be with the VIP upgrade? Yonge-Dundas went to 23 from 24 screens when they converted the old AMC, and Winston Churchill went from 24 to 22 by converting to VIP recently. IMAX is also on that level so that screen would definitely remain and need enough room for an entrance and exit, but with that pretty large lobby on the lower level I’m sure there would be tons of extra room for the kitchen and lounge.

I added the Ultra AVX photo onto this page and with what looks like around a 550 seat count, it’s by far the largest AVX auditorium in Canada. Also like Yonge-Dundas in Toronto it has a true scope screen making it more ideal for widescreen presentations.

Also, does anyone know how you get back down from the top level of cinemas (11-22) on the top level? From all the photos I saw, I can’t see an escalator back down making you exit into the top level of the forum? The top and bottom concession areas are now walled off, so it would seem like a chore to get back down to the main level to visit the concession stand.

Spectrum Entertainment on December 31, 2020 at 11:52 pm

Why is Cineplex keeping this former AMC despite also having Cinema Banque Scotia nearby on the same street. This feels like a Yonge-Dundas vs Scotiabank situation in Toronto. Am I right?

Spectrum Entertainment on December 9, 2019 at 9:50 pm

Should be renamed to Cinéma Cineplex Forum.

cmbussmann on February 7, 2013 at 9:01 pm

I didn’t get to the Forum much but I did like the way they maintained “center ice” and made sure you were aware of the building’s heritage. The Forum back then also did some brilliant counter-programing, being the only multiplex in Montreal that offered several screens up to a variety of indie and anime offerings.