Denman Cinemas latest to be mothballed
The single- screen Denman Cinemas is the latest of Vancouver’s independent neighbourhood theatres to close its doors after bringing moving pictures to the city’s West End for more than five decades.
Owners Naz and Mike Jamshedian said the business is profitable, but it will shut down at the end of this month after their short- term lease was not renewed by their landlord, who is seeking to more than quintuple the rent.
“We always picked up a mix of documentary, foreign movies and one mainstream ( movie). We played five different movies a day to appeal to different ages and people,” said Naz Jamshedian. “The only way that a single screen can survive today is if the city calls it ( a) heritage ( building).”
The couple took over the theatre almost two years ago and hoped to renew this year for a longer five- year lease after spending almost $ 50,000 on a facelift that included new carpets and a new projector, Jamshedian said. Rent was $ 7,000 per month, but property owner Siddoo Properties told them at the end of August that they wanted at least $ 35,000 a month. A representative of Siddoo Properties was unavailable for comment.
The advent of multiplex theatres and a multitude of other factors — including high- speed Internet, changing consumer tastes in entertainment and rising property values — have all led to the closure of several small or single- screen cinemas across the Lower Mainland.
Leonard Schein, president of Festival Cinemas which runs the Fifth Avenue, Park and Ridge theatres, said the multi- screen Fifth Avenue theatre is doing well, but the Ridge will likely be bulldozed next spring to make way for condos.
“The cost of running five screens is maybe twice the cost of running a single screen, yet you have five movies to choose from, so people from the neighbourhood can go much more often,” Schein said. “It’s difficult for an independent and it’s just about impossible for a single screen in an urban area because the cost of land is so high.”
Jamshedian said Denman had been attracting about three weekend charity events each month and using a skeleton staff consisting most days of just her husband.
“He would sell the tickets, the popcorn, and start the movie,” Jamshedian said. At times, when he had to leave the door to start the movie “a customer would go tell him, ‘ Hey, this guy sneaked in, go ask him for a ticket.’ ”
Loyal patron Tom Wakefield even volunteered to run the theatre’s Twitter page, posting information daily for the social media- challenged couple. The theatre will close its doors forever with its Retro Film Fest showing cult favourites like Pulp Fiction and the Big Lebowski from Sept. 23 to 30.
While Wakefield eulogized the theatre this week from his personal Twitter account, the cinema tweeted “feels like we’re alive for our own funeral. At least our retro film fest will be one heck of a wake!”