Cinema City: Before and After
In what is surely a preemptive move from prospective construction of a multi screen movie theatre on the IKEA site, Cineplex Odeon at McGillivray Boulevard and Kenaston Boulevard.
From the beginning, it has been reported that part of the IKEA site was going to movie theatres, possibly from the Empire chain or the expanding AMC chain. This obvious didn't sit well with dominant player Cineplex.
The response from Winnigeggers has been somewhat mixed since a decent second run movie theatre is now going to have first run movies and posh prices.
So now the Cineplex Odeon McGillivary & VIP Cinemas is born.
What will it consist of? It will be eight traditional auditoriums and three VIP screening rooms. Presumably, if Justin Bieber is back in town, he will be able to entertain his girlfriend Selena Gomez at this theatre rather than at Silver City Polo Park.
The Cineplex announcement is part and parcel of $6.5 million of renovation being done to most of the properties the company owns in the city. New concessions, paint, seats and entertainment are all part of what we'll be seeing in the various facilities.
Now...a modest proposal:
Since we are losing a discount movie theatre in the south end of the city, is not time to consider the Empire Theatre location at the Grant Park Mall. It is the only location of the Empire chain in Winnipeg.
If indeed, it is Empire intending on building on the IKEA site, would it not make some sense to possibly convert the Grant Park site to a discount theatre?
I know I'm not the owner or anything but yeesh, we do like our discount theatres in the city and Grant Park might do well by it.
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Just picked up the Uniter at McNally Robinson. Saw the story on OMC there. Good job!
I'd love it if the Uniter, Manitoban and Projector were available in boxes around the city. Just sayin'
Despite the fact that so much is online, I love the feel of the paper in my hands.
5 comments:
Thank you, John! I have to admit all I did was show up at Parlour, drink coffee and try to answer questions in a semi-coherent state. Ethan Cabel from the Uniter did all the heavy lifting on that one.
I have to add that all of the 3 big campus newspapers do a much better job these days (compared to when I was a student) of distributing their print editions, with the Uniter in particular being pretty easy to find around downtown and surrounding area.
I pick up The Uniter & Toban all the time around Osborne Village. I've never even heard of The Projector. What is it?
Anon: It is the paper for Red River College.
And I was thinking more of a complete city wide delivery system where all three college papers would be available from St. Vital to Garden City in free boxes.
If the Metro can do it, why not the college papers?
I would also like it if they perhaps did some renovations to the Cinema City location on McPhillips - that location is quite tired looking. Perhaps an expansion and renovation to that theatre rather than converting the Grant Park location into a cheapie; with zero scientific data to back me up I would hazard a guess that more folks from the south end have cars and could drive to the north part of the city rather than vice versa.
WG: I'm sure some people would drive the distance. But the Kenaston/McPhllips route round trip can take quite a long time give the traffic nowadays.
For a family with a couple of kids, it is likely they would make as many trips to the theatre based on time. You have to remember many parents drop their kids off at the theatre and pick them after.
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