Red Deer’s Carnival Cinemas will close later this year and the second-run movie theatre will eventually re-open in a new location.
At least that’s the plan, said owner Bill Ramji on Tuesday.
But he added that plans can always change, depending on market conditions, “economies of scale,” and whether an affordable and appropriate new home can be found.
Red Deer city council gave initial approval on Monday to a zoning change that would allow for a mixed-use residential and commercial complex to be created on the existing Carnival Cinemas site at the gateway of the Capstone neighbourhood.
The property’s pending sale will mean the theatre will have to close “for a while” — likely by the end of the summer, said Ramji. He noted it would take time to renovate an existing site into a theatre. “We are at the mercy of construction industry. Contractors are busy.”
But other factors could influence the theatre’s long-term viability.
Ramji said the bottomline is enough movie-goers are needed to make it worthwhile for him to re-open the theatre.
After-effects of the pandemic, the Hollywood writers’ strike, the quick turn-over of films to in-demand TV services, and the lack of movie offerings are all working against the future of second-run movie houses.
He explained there’s only a small inventory of films now since the pandemic and the writers’ strike curtailed production for several years.
Many new movies are either playing for a long time at first-run theatres, if they are a hit, or they run for a short time and then are quickly turned over to in-demand TV services. This leaves a very small window to show them at second-run theatres.
Although many private residences now have in-home theatre rooms, Ramji knows some movie-goers still prefer to watch films unfold on the big screen.
For 27 years Carnival Cinemas has operated in Red Deer, not only as a movie house, but as a community gathering space with events rooms, art-house film screenings as part of the the Red Deer museum’s Reel Movie Mondays series, and as home to the Central Alberta Film Festival.
“We do appreciate all the support that we’ve had,” said Ramji, who’s hopeful a new home can eventually be found for the theatre to re-open.
As it would be cost-prohibitive to build from scratch, he’s still investigating the potential of renovating existing properties.
Meanwhile, Control V, the arcade part of Carnival Cinemas, was sold to new owner Curtis Chick. Ramji said it will definitely be reopening somewhere else in Red Deer, with a new location to be announced.