Piracy and DVD sales are putting the theaters out of business… or so we’ve been told. I managed to take this picture while driving around downtown (while stopped at a light, of course) a few days ago. The picture is a bit blurry, because I only had my cell phone camera with me at the time:
It turns out that a new movie theater is going into a plaza around Sheppard and Don Mills. This isn’t your average run-of-the mill theater either; this is one of Cineplex’s giant “Silver City” theater complexes. This isn’t an isolated incident either; theaters are still being constructed amidst giant box store malls all over Ontario. While this isn’t necessarily proof that the theater companies aren’t in trouble, it makes me wonder if they’re doing as bad as most people seem to think.
Cineplex actually closed down an old movie theatre (most recently known as Rainbow Fairview) and ripped out the food court to make space for the new theatre they’re building.
This Silvercity will be the new classy, urban style theatres that Cineplex is introducing since the opening of Silvercity Oakville. The new Silvercities will not be tacky as the original theatres.