Eaton Centre Cinemas
1 Dundas Street W,
Toronto,
ON
M5B 2H1
1 Dundas Street W,
Toronto,
ON
M5B 2H1
4 people
favorited this theater
Showing 1 - 25 of 43 comments
opening article:
opening ad:
A 1983 newspaper ad for Cineplex and found these theatres:
Eaton Centre
Scarborough Town Centre
Hillcrest Mall
Erin Mills
Warden Woods
https://imgur.com/a/puUxIoe
“And Cineplex wept, seeing as he had no more worlds to conquer. So he merged with Odeon, bought Famous Players and destroyed all that was great about the Toronto movie landscape.”
video at
There was a Cineplex chain that operated in Texas from 1977-1986, which had nothing to do with the Canadian chain.
This famous theatre opened on April 19, 1979, and it was the first theatre Cineplex made. Its opening movies include The Tree of Wooden Clogs, The Shout, Tommy, Newsfront, A Purple Taxi, Rain and Shine, Queen of the Gypsies, and The Rubber Gun. These were pretty obscure movies back in the day. It closed on March 14, 2001. On the day before, its last films include Sugar & Spice, Wonder Boys, All the Pretty Horses, Best in Show, Unbreakable, Head over Heels, Antitrust, Dracula 2000, 102 Dalmatians, The Family Man (Digital), Dude, Where’s My Car?, Vertical Limit (Digital), Proof of Life, Charlie’s Angels, and Meet the Parents. Except for The Family Man and Vertical Limit, all movies used Dolby SR instead of digital sound. In my opinion, the closure news, while sad for many, was not shocking at all. I blame its age and small space more than Famous Players Paramount or any newer cinema. The good news is that I think Cineplex Yonge-Dundas will remain for a long while due to its location. Wishing Cineplex the best of luck in this pandemic.
According to this website the seating capacity for this theater´s screens were as follows:
1 and 2 both had 92
3 had 56 the smallest set of seats out of this theater
4 had 70
5 had the most seats with 398 it also had DTS and THX sound systems and had 70mm plus a Balcony
6 had 84
7 and 8 both had 115 (35mm)
9 and 10 had 86
11 had 100 (35mm)
12 had 96 (35mm)
13 and 14 both had 78
15 and 16 both had 195 the second most amount of seats also both had DTS sound system (35mm)
17 and 18 had 58
All Cinemas had 16mm Rear Projection except those in ()
Amount of Screens or in this case Cinemas and seats
1979-1980 18 Cinemas 2,052 seats
1981-1987 3 Cinemas were added increasing an Unknown amount of seats
1988-1999 4 Cinemas were closed reducing the amount of seats to 1,994
2000-2001 1 Cinema was closed and amount of seats were reduced to 1,936 during its end of days.
They could have built an 14 screen Theatre in its place
I think the reason why this Theatre closed down was because the screens were dying it’s not one of those theatres that the Theatre owner should not have closed down like the AMC Grand 24 but this Theatre seems to have a good run
This was not the first theatre called Cineplex. See http://cinematreasures.org/theaters/27493
I uploaded the April 19th, 1979 grand opening ad here.
And what is even more interesting is that although the shopping complex is still called Eaton Centre, Eaton’s is no more. Now it’s Sears.
The rats and mice part sounds scary. That alone would make me want to quit my position.
And it turns out, this theatre really was intended to be an arthouse. In its early years, the theatre ran art films and revivals as well as second-run fare. Also, there was a bistro and art gallery nearby (an idea that later showed up in other Cineplex theatre) which also inforced the whole art intention.
More interesting things I found were that Midnight Express and Life Of Brian both played for over a year in second run.
To say I hated working this theatre (as a projectionist) would be the understatement of the Century (or Simplex or Cinemeccanica). This was the single most wretched job an operator could get assigned to in the Toronto Local in the 80s and 90s, in my opinion. It was originally 16mm only and ran with non-union operators. King Garth then put in 35mm equipment in throughout. The problem is, many of these abominations masquerading as auditoria were equipped with rear-screen projection equipment, a cobbled-together mini-platter system or MUTT arrangement, and three front-surface mirrors. Did I mention the projectors sat on the floor? Did I mention the rats and mice in the booth?
There were three sections (six regular ops). Front section on the main floor and the three downstairs booths, back-half main floor and second floor. Number 5 was retrofitted with a Cinemeccanica Vic-X (the second machine out of the Humber downstairs when they put a platter in there). Number 5’s booth and the downstairs corridor for 15-16-17 were not bad. When I heard it closed I so wanted to ride a bulldozer through the lobby and personally tear the place to rubble.
I like all the AMC “multiplex” theatres in the Toronto area. They are comfortable, have all the amenities and are not noisy, garish with that carnival atmosphere that the others have, especially the former Famous Players locations.
Mine too Jon. Much classier than all the others, and a great location too!
Since the AMC opened it’s turned into my favorite movie house in Toronto. Classy looking, no pre-show commercials, great seats and excellent 4K digital projection in all of its 24 auditoriums. Sure beats the pants off both the long-gone Eaton Centre cinemas as well as the Scotiabank.
List of auditorium seating charts:
1-92
2-92
3-56
4-70
5-398
6-84
7-115
8-115
9-86
10-86
11-100
12-96
13-78
14-78
15-195
16-195
17-58
18-58
Total-2,052 seats
A nice retrospective on the Eaton Centre Cineplex can be found over at 32 Elvis Movies.
I like the Varsity too but it’s too expensive. The old Uptown (formerly Loew’s Uptown) was the best! I prefer the new AMC to the Scotiabank theatre…looks classier and less noise….
I have been to three movies in there so far.
My prefered cinema in Toronto was the “Uptown” but now that has gone I like the “Varsity”
It was getting a bit screenless wasn’t it. The paramount not being exactly perfect- hope this is better than that cold brick of a place!
Yes, it opened on March 28th and i’ve been there and it’s beautiful! Nice addition to the downtown scene. Nice to finally get some movie screens back on Yonge St. where a lot of old movie houses used to be.
LOL I simply asked if the complex was open yet!!!
Ha ha ha ha ha ha