Vancouver Film Industry Rallies To Save Historic Park Movie Theatre

Dan Lalonde
Oct 29
2 min read

Park Theatre Vancouver Osgood Perkins (Longlegs), Zach Lipovsky (Final Destination Bloodlines), Finn Wolfhard (Stranger Things), Sean Baker (Anora), Mike Flanagan (Doctor Sleep), Chris Ferguson (Backrooms), and Samantha Quan (Anora). Also involved are crew like film editor Graham Fortin (Keeper), post supervisor Andy Levine (Longlegs), sound designer Eugenio Battaglia (Eternity), film coordinator Jill Orsten, and film attorney Christina Bulbrook (A Complete Unknown).

What was your favorite movie theatre growing up? When I first moved to Vancouver in 2001 to attend film school, I got a job at Famous Player's Capitol 6 movie theatre on Granville Street. I always used to give the celebrities who came in free popcorn. The ones I met were John Schneider (The Dukes Of Hazzard), Jeanne Tripplehorn (The Firm), William H. Macy (Boogie Nights), William Forsythe (The Rock), and others. I remember Robert Forester (Jackie Brown) being nice enough to talk about film and Quentin Tarantino for twenty minutes. The theatre is now torn down, like most of Vancouver's nightlife.

The historic Park Movie Theatre in Vancouver on Cambie Street has been saved by a consortium of film industry people led by Osgood Perkins (Longlegs), Zach Lipovsky (Final Destination Bloodlines), Finn Wolfhard (Stranger Things), Sean Baker (Anora), Mike Flanagan (Doctor Sleep), Chris Ferguson (Backrooms), and Samantha Quan (Anora). Also involved are crew like film editor Graham Fortin (Keeper), post supervisor Andy Levine (Longlegs), sound designer Eugenio Battaglia (Eternity), film coordinator Jill Orsten, and film attorney Christina Bulbrook (A Complete Unknown).

The theatre has been owned by the Cineplex chain since 2013 and will now be run by Corinne Lea, the CEO of The Rio Theatre on Broadway and Commercial. She released this statement: “The Rio Theatre is very excited by the opportunity to revive Vancouver’s historic, art-deco Park Theatre in the beloved Cambie Village neighborhood. We are grateful for the support of this impressive group of film industry professionals, and could not do this without them! After almost two decades of rocking the Rio, we look forward to this expansion and bringing the same fun, energy, and passion to a new location.”

The plan to save the theatre started when the Rio group approached Chris Ferguson, the owner of Oddfellow Pictures, who helped put together the team. Ferguson also said in a statement: “Film is so central to the essence of Vancouver. I’m thrilled, not only that we were able to save this historic theatre that I went to as a child, but that it was a group of some of our most significant filmmakers who came together to do it. There’s no one in the city I would trust more to keep it alive than the team at the Rio.”

Are you still going out to enjoy the movie theatre experience? Comment below with your thoughts.