Iconic Park Theatre Is Saved by an Investment from the Rio Theatre and Star-Studded Lineup of Partners

Vancouverites love their local indie theatres (what can we say? With 200-some days of rain, some of us really love the great indoors), and that became all the more clear this past weekend when the masses came out to support the sudden announcement of the Park Theatre’s last screening on Sunday, October 26.

It was announced that the curtain call for the Cambie Village cinema (which had been run by theatre giants Cineplex since its purchase in 2013) was to be a final screening of One Battle After Another on 70mm, and it showed to a full house at the 505-seat theatre. After its final flick, attendees of the closing night film stood outside to watch on as the marquee’s sign was changed to read “There’s No Place Like Home.”

But, always one to surprise its audiences, the Rio Theatre announced on its Instagram on Monday morning that the theatre—along with a star-studded handful of investors—would be taking over and reviving the historic movie hub, which first opened its doors as an Odeon in 1941.

 

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by The Rio Theatre (@riotheatre)

“The Rio Theatre is very excited by the opportunity to revive Vancouver’s historic, art-deco Park Theatre in the beloved Cambie Village neighbourhood,” Rio Theatre CEO Corinne Lea writes in a release. “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.”

Lea, along with Oddfellows Pictures owner and film producer Chris Ferguson and Longlegs director Osgood Perkins (the two latter of whom have started Phobos, a new Vancouver film production company together), plus filmmakers Mike Flanagan (The Life of Chuck), Sean Baker (Anora, The Florida Project), Samantha Quan (Anora, Red Rocket) and Zach Lipovsky (Final Destination Bloodlines, Freaks) have made an investment into saving the 84-year-old film landmark. Other financial backers are Stranger Things actor and musician Finn Wolfhard, along with film professionals Graham Fortin, Eugenio Battaglia, Andy Levine, Jill Orsten and Christina Bulbrook.

“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,” writes Ferguson. “There’s no one in the city I would trust more to keep it alive than the team at the Rio.”