Movie Theatres of Ottawa\Gatineau

[waterloowarrior]

http://www.civilization.ca/imax/home/index_e.asp

THE THEATRE IS TEMPORARILY CLOSED
FROM JANUARY 4 TO FEBRUARY 28, 2010.
GRAND RE-OPENING IN IMAX 3D IN MARCH 2010!

CELEBRATE THE NEW YEAR IN 3D!

By kat, December 23, 2009, Comments(0)

December 23, 2009 – Gatineau, Quebec – As the New Year approaches, the IMAX Theatre at the Canadian Museum of Civilization has made a resolution to present films in 3D format. That’s right: the Theatre, which is now 20 years old, will get a makeover! As soon as March 2010, our visitors will be able to enjoy movies in 3D.

When it first opened in June 1989, the IMAX Theatre at the Canadian Museum of Civilization was the first theatre in the world to combine the IMAX screen and the IMAX Dome in the same room. After nearly 20 years of top-notch IMAX cinema, it will now offer movie-lovers the IMAX 3D technology, a new, state-of-the-art sound system, a new screen and new seats. Thanks to all of these improved features, the IMAX Theatre will be the only one in North America to present 3D films on the IMAX screen and 2D films on the Dome.

Stay tuned to our website during the next few months for more details!




The Gloucester IMAX is apparently the smallest IMAX screen in Canada. I'd like to see Avatar again on the new screen in Hull

[RTWAP]

I was keen to see Avatar again except in IMAX 3D instead of just 3D, but a buddy who saw it in both said it wasn't noticeably better.

[rakerman]

IMAX or LIEMAX

Is IMAX Digital Ripping You Off with Smaller Screens?

http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?hl=en&ie=...621990356540393221.000469b6c5915161c3667

[waterloowarrior]

it's open again.. showing Sharks 3D and U2 3D

[waterloowarrior]

IMAX Gatineau is now playing Avatar! http://www.civilization.ca/imax/fichiers/horaire.pdf

[loga0082]

I am curious to know what they are going to construct exactly at Lansdowne park. I guess that I have to wait another 3 months to find out. I hope that the cultural institutions is a movie theatre, because I do not feel too happy that they closed the WEP and the Rideau centre cinemas. I find that Lansdowne Cineplex is a bit too far from my house and I cannot even walk to Silvercity. I know, for sure; that they want to include a hockey arena, commercial space, and condos.

loga0082

[mykl]

^^ There is absolutely no chance a theater will be built at Lebreton Flats so don't even dream about it. Just accept the many theaters that already exist in Ottawa.

[acottawa]

Originally Posted by loga0082

I am curious to know what they are going to construct exactly at Lansdowne park. I guess that I have to wait another 3 months to find out. I hope that the cultural institutions is a movie theatre, because I do not feel too happy that they closed the WEP and the Rideau centre cinemas. I find that Lansdowne Cineplex is a bit too far from my house and I cannot even walk to Silvercity. I know, for sure; that they want to include a hockey arena, commercial space, and condos.

loga0082

Movies have an exclusion zone of I think 5 km (which is why WEP and Rideau never had the same movie), so it would be almost impossible to have a mainstream movie theatre anywhere downtown while Lansdowne exists.

I think the cultural centre is part of the claridge proposal, so it will almost certainly underwealm. Hopefully another team gets the gig.

[loga0082]

Originally Posted by acottawa

Movies have an exclusion zone of I think 5 km (which is why WEP and Rideau never had the same movie), so it would be almost impossible to have a mainstream movie theatre anywhere downtown while Lansdowne exists.

I think the cultural centre is part of the claridge proposal, so it will almost certainly underwealm. Hopefully another team gets the gig.

You are probably right, acottawa! A movie theatre would not be a good idea at Lebreton Flats, when there is one at Lansdowne. I do not think that it would work anyway. When I was doing my field placement at the Art is in Bakery two years ago for my Baking and Pastry program at Algonquin, I passed by Lebreton Flats. That area looked a bit too small to fit a movie theatre. They were planning to put a hockey arena, restaurants, green space, retail, and condo towers. They were mentioning about putting a Science museum there. It would be a good idea to have a science museum, because it will be close to the War Museum. I know that the LRT will be passing there. If they build a movie theatre at Lebreton Flats, people do not want to pay money for parking and the Lansdowne cineplex will not do well.

loga0082

[Harley613]

Originally Posted by acottawa

Movies have an exclusion zone of I think 5 km (which is why WEP and Rideau never had the same movie), so it would be almost impossible to have a mainstream movie theatre anywhere downtown while Lansdowne exists.

I think the cultural centre is part of the claridge proposal, so it will almost certainly underwealm. Hopefully another team gets the gig.

I have never heard of this and there is no way it applies to a downtown core. Toronto has six within walking distance downtown that I can think of off the top of my head.

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by Harley613

I have never heard of this and there is no way it applies to a downtown core. Toronto has six within walking distance downtown that I can think of off the top of my head.

I though this too. Perhaps the chain itself that operates at Lansdowne has an exclusion zone so as not to cannibalize its own cinemas, but the city? No way.

[Innsertnamehere]

Ciniplex runs 2 cinemas in Downtown Toronto (Dundas Square and Scotiabank Theatre), and they generally don't play the same shows. There is a bit of overlap for the really big blockbusters, but in general they split the showings between the two.

[kwoldtimer]

The distance rule seems to apply in K-W. The new Apollo Cinema in Downtown Kitchener and the Princess Cinemas in Waterloo can show the same films. The Apollo and the Imagine Cinemas are too close together and are not able to overlap with the same films.

Actually, I don't know if the Apollo - Princess thing is because of distance or because it is two different cities.

[acottawa]

Originally Posted by Harley613

I have never heard of this and there is no way it applies to a downtown core. Toronto has six within walking distance downtown that I can think of off the top of my head.

Rocketphish posted this article several years ago that notes the problem. It has been my experience watching movies in Toronto that movies (even big blockbusters) play at either Yonge/Dundas or Scotiabank but not both, so it wouldn't surprise me if the rule applied there as well.


_____________

Uncertainty over Lansdowne cinema engulfs World Exchange theatre, too

Manager says building owner would rather not convert facility to office space

By David Reevely, OTTAWA CITIZEN September 3, 2013

OTTAWA — Uncertainty about Lansdowne Park’s planned new movie theatre is one reason why the World Exchange Plaza hasn’t signed a new operator for its cinema, the downtown office complex’s leasing manager said Tuesday.

“The incentive for us is to continue on,” Daniel Gray told city council’s finance committee, explaining that converting the multiplex inside the World Exchange into office space would be expensive and difficult, even though the building’s owner is asking for permission to do just that.

Windowless theatres with sloped floors aren’t easy to repurpose, Gray said, estimating it would take 10 years to recoup the cost. And that’s in a normal market, whereas just now Ottawa has a glut of office space downtown. It’s so expensive that Place de Ville’s underground cinema, once the biggest in town, has been mothballed for nearly 20 years.

Three theatre chains have approached him in at least a general way about taking over the World Exchange cinema when the Empire Theatres lease expires at the end of the year. Empire is getting out of the movie house business; it has sold most of its screens and is walking away from the rest, including the one at the World Exchange.

But, said Gray, there’s a problem: Movie distributors won’t give the same movies to theatres within five kilometres of each other. “They’re not going to give two locations in close proximity to each other what I’ll call the A-quality films,” Gray said.

The World Exchange and the now-closed cinema at the Rideau Centre managed the problem by catering to different audiences, with the Rideau Centre showing more teen-blockbuster flicks and the World Exchange typically screening movies that are a bit higher-brow. Both of them were Empire cinemas, so that division was easy to maintain.

But now the Rideau Centre’s theatre is closed and everyone is waiting see what happens with the theatre at Lansdowne. It is under construction, an integral part of the city’s agreement with the Ottawa Sports and Entertainment Group to redevelop the Glebe fairground. It’s also another Empire property whose future is unclear and it’s only 2½ kilometres from the World Exchange Plaza.

Both OSEG and Empire have said they expect to honour the agreement to have a cinema at Lansdowne, meant to be a high-end operation with luxurious seats, good food and a liquor licence, but neither has said just how. A cinema operator there could also take over the World Exchange theatres, co-operate with it, compete with it, or make taking it over an obviously foolhardy move for anybody, depending who it is. If there’s no Lansdowne theatre, running the World Exchange cinema would be a lot more attractive.

“We really have no comment on this issue at this time,” said OSEG’s lead partner, Roger Greenberg, through a spokesman. Negotiations are continuing over the Lansdowne theatre and that’s it.

In the meantime, the World Exchange’s owner, the British Columbia Investment Management Corp., and its real-estate company Bentall Kennedy (Gray’s employer) want the option to turn their cinema into something else.

At issue is an agreement between the city and the property’s original developer, which included a promise to include an “entertainment” use in the building. The agreement has been amended over the years, most recently in about 1997, and even the city’s lawyers aren’t sure it committed the World Exchange’s owners to keep providing entertainment after the building was finished. Everyone agrees that that entertainment use, even if it is legally required, wouldn’t necessarily have to be a movie theatre. But the companies want a definitive ruling saying that they can do whatever they want in the theatre space as long as it’s consistent with the building’s mixed-use zoning.

Most councillors on the finance committee weren’t happy about the prospect.

“There’s actually more pressure for entertainment downtown than 15 or 20 years ago,” observed Gloucester-Southgate’s Diane Deans, what with all the condo towers city council has approved lately.

Councillors on the finance committee weren’t convinced they had enough information to decide. It wasn’t clear how binding the agreement is, for instance.

At the suggestion of Mayor Jim Watson, city manager Kent Kirkpatrick was told to take charge of the file and bring a proper report to the finance committee’s next meeting, scheduled for Oct. 1.

[email protected]

ottawacitizen.com/greaterottawa
© Copyright (c) The Ottawa Citizen

http://www.ottawacitizen.com/news/Un...752/story.html

[dhottawa729]

Lansdowne to Lebreton is only about 3km. Based on the 5km rule, the only other suitable places for a A-quality theatre is Westboro (between Broadview and Kirkwood) or Baseline/Clyde (where the old CTV building was). Now we are way off topic.

[loga0082]

Originally Posted by acottawa

Rocketphish posted this article several years ago that notes the problem. It has been my experience watching movies in Toronto that movies (even big blockbusters) play at either Yonge/Dundas or Scotiabank but not both, so it wouldn't surprise me if the rule applied there as well.


_____________

Uncertainty over Lansdowne cinema engulfs World Exchange theatre, too

Manager says building owner would rather not convert facility to office space

By David Reevely, OTTAWA CITIZEN September 3, 2013

OTTAWA — Uncertainty about Lansdowne Park’s planned new movie theatre is one reason why the World Exchange Plaza hasn’t signed a new operator for its cinema, the downtown office complex’s leasing manager said Tuesday.

“The incentive for us is to continue on,” Daniel Gray told city council’s finance committee, explaining that converting the multiplex inside the World Exchange into office space would be expensive and difficult, even though the building’s owner is asking for permission to do just that.

Windowless theatres with sloped floors aren’t easy to repurpose, Gray said, estimating it would take 10 years to recoup the cost. And that’s in a normal market, whereas just now Ottawa has a glut of office space downtown. It’s so expensive that Place de Ville’s underground cinema, once the biggest in town, has been mothballed for nearly 20 years.

Three theatre chains have approached him in at least a general way about taking over the World Exchange cinema when the Empire Theatres lease expires at the end of the year. Empire is getting out of the movie house business; it has sold most of its screens and is walking away from the rest, including the one at the World Exchange.

But, said Gray, there’s a problem: Movie distributors won’t give the same movies to theatres within five kilometres of each other. “They’re not going to give two locations in close proximity to each other what I’ll call the A-quality films,” Gray said.

The World Exchange and the now-closed cinema at the Rideau Centre managed the problem by catering to different audiences, with the Rideau Centre showing more teen-blockbuster flicks and the World Exchange typically screening movies that are a bit higher-brow. Both of them were Empire cinemas, so that division was easy to maintain.

But now the Rideau Centre’s theatre is closed and everyone is waiting see what happens with the theatre at Lansdowne. It is under construction, an integral part of the city’s agreement with the Ottawa Sports and Entertainment Group to redevelop the Glebe fairground. It’s also another Empire property whose future is unclear and it’s only 2½ kilometres from the World Exchange Plaza.

Both OSEG and Empire have said they expect to honour the agreement to have a cinema at Lansdowne, meant to be a high-end operation with luxurious seats, good food and a liquor licence, but neither has said just how. A cinema operator there could also take over the World Exchange theatres, co-operate with it, compete with it, or make taking it over an obviously foolhardy move for anybody, depending who it is. If there’s no Lansdowne theatre, running the World Exchange cinema would be a lot more attractive.

“We really have no comment on this issue at this time,” said OSEG’s lead partner, Roger Greenberg, through a spokesman. Negotiations are continuing over the Lansdowne theatre and that’s it.

In the meantime, the World Exchange’s owner, the British Columbia Investment Management Corp., and its real-estate company Bentall Kennedy (Gray’s employer) want the option to turn their cinema into something else.

At issue is an agreement between the city and the property’s original developer, which included a promise to include an “entertainment” use in the building. The agreement has been amended over the years, most recently in about 1997, and even the city’s lawyers aren’t sure it committed the World Exchange’s owners to keep providing entertainment after the building was finished. Everyone agrees that that entertainment use, even if it is legally required, wouldn’t necessarily have to be a movie theatre. But the companies want a definitive ruling saying that they can do whatever they want in the theatre space as long as it’s consistent with the building’s mixed-use zoning.

Most councillors on the finance committee weren’t happy about the prospect.

“There’s actually more pressure for entertainment downtown than 15 or 20 years ago,” observed Gloucester-Southgate’s Diane Deans, what with all the condo towers city council has approved lately.

Councillors on the finance committee weren’t convinced they had enough information to decide. It wasn’t clear how binding the agreement is, for instance.

At the suggestion of Mayor Jim Watson, city manager Kent Kirkpatrick was told to take charge of the file and bring a proper report to the finance committee’s next meeting, scheduled for Oct. 1.

[email protected]

ottawacitizen.com/greaterottawa
© Copyright (c) The Ottawa Citizen

http://www.ottawacitizen.com/news/Un...752/story.html

I do remember reading this article about the WEP cinemas. Didn't Landmark take over the WEP,but could not come up with an agreement with Bentall Kennedy. In the end, the cinemas closed its doors. It does not matter, if they do not build a movie theatre in Lebreton Flats. There are enough movie theatres in Ottawa anyway. Nowadays most people prefer to watch movies in the computer or on paid TV. We will have to wait and see what Lebreton flats redevelopment plan is going to be.

Loga0082

[movebyleap]

I'm not sure I understand...was this law not in place back in the day when we had the Somerset, Rideau Centre, Mayfair, Place de Ville, World Exchange, Capital Square, the Elgin, the Phoenix, etc... all within walking distance from each other?

And now suddenly having TWO movie theatres downtown is an issue?

[acottawa]

Originally Posted by movebyleap

I'm not sure I understand...was this law not in place back in the day when we had the Somerset, Rideau Centre, Mayfair, Place de Ville, World Exchange, Capital Square, the Elgin, the Phoenix, etc... all within walking distance from each other?

And now suddenly having TWO movie theatres downtown is an issue?

I believe the restriction is on the movies themselves not on the theatres, so WEP and Rideau had different movies when they were open, but in the era of multiplexes where every theatre has every major movie in release it is difficult to have two multiplexes within 5km of each other.

Also, I don't believe all of those theatres existed as mainstream theatres at the same time.

[loga0082]

I remember that the Rideau Centre cinemas in the past few years showed more of these Blockbuster teen movies, while the WEP took better movies which were Oscar nominated. They were both owned by the Empire. The Bytowne which is a few blocks down did not show the same movies as the Rideau Centre and the WEP. It always showed more foreign, classic, independant, documentary, and second run films. The Bytowne never takes those teen blockbuster and 3D image movies. The Mayfair is very close to Lansdowne cineplex, but it shows more foreign, classic, independant, and second run movies. It does not show the same stuff as Lansdowne park. When the WEP and the Rideau Centre were newly opened, the Somerset, Capitol Square, Place de Ville, the Elgins, and the Rialto movie theatres were opened. I think that they showed different movies, but I do not remember. I believe that the Rialto showed more foreign and classic films. With the opening of the WEP cinemas in 1991, the Rialto closed. I read in Alain Miguelez book on 'A Cinema Near You' that the WEP cinemas which had 7 rooms killed off the Rialto, Somerset, Place de Ville, Capitol Square, and the Elgin street movie theatre. They also built all those multiplex movie theatres in the suburbs, because many people live there. At least, the suburban movie theatres had a lot of parking space which no one has to pay to park. When all the movie theatres were open downtown, it was a nuisance having to find parking and pay a lot of money for parking. The WEP cinemas only gave free parking in the weekend. At the Bytowne, one can park free at Loblaws, if you shop there before the movies.

loga0082

[rocketphish]

Originally Posted by loga0082

I remember that the Rideau Centre cinemas in the past few years showed more of these Blockbuster teen movies, while the WEP took better movies which were Oscar nominated. They were both owned by the Empire. The Bytowne which is a few blocks down did not show the same movies as the Rideau Centre and the WEP. It always showed more foreign, classic, independant, documentary, and second run films. The Bytowne never takes those teen blockbuster and 3D image movies. The Mayfair is very close to Lansdowne cineplex, but it shows more foreign, classic, independant, and second run movies. It does not show the same stuff as Lansdowne park. When the WEP and the Rideau Centre were newly opened, the Somerset, Capitol Square, Place de Ville, the Elgins, and the Rialto movie theatres were opened. I think that they showed different movies, but I do not remember. I believe that the Rialto showed more foreign and classic films. With the opening of the WEP cinemas in 1991, the Rialto closed. I read in Alain Miguelez book on 'A Cinema Near You' that the WEP cinemas which had 7 rooms killed off the Rialto, Somerset, Place de Ville, Capitol Square, and the Elgin street movie theatre. They also built all those multiplex movie theatres in the suburbs, because many people live there. At least, the suburban movie theatres had a lot of parking space which no one has to pay to park. When all the movie theatres were open downtown, it was a nuisance having to find parking and pay a lot of money for parking. The WEP cinemas only gave free parking in the weekend. At the Bytowne, one can park free at Loblaws, if you shop there before the movies.

loga0082

All in favour of a dedicated separate thread for the repetitive and never ending movie theatre discussion say aye.