The Revue Cinema on July 2. After a tumultuous summer, the cinema management and landlords reached a new five-year lease agreement on Sept. 10.Carlos Osorio/The Globe and Mail
The long-simmering dispute between landlord and tenant that has kept the fate of Toronto’s oldest movie theatre in limbo has been resolved.
On Tuesday, a new five-year lease agreement was reached between the not-for-profit organization operating the Revue Cinema and the building’s owners, Danny and Leticia Mullin, after months of tension over the property, which is located on a prime stretch of retail real estate in the city’s west end.
In a statement released by the Revue Film Society, the federally incorporated 10-member volunteer board that runs the single-screen cinema, the operators noted that the “Mullins have always wanted the Revue Cinema to operate as an independent movie theatre and community landmark, a desire they share with the Revue Film Society. The society has not, and does not, endorse any statements suggesting otherwise.”
As part of the new lease agreement, the Mullins requested that the Revue board make a “significant” contribution to St. Joseph’s Health Centre, which will be done in the form of donated advertising space valued at more than $62,000. The new deal will also see the Revue hold an annual fundraising event for St. Joseph’s Hospital inside the theatre.
“Patrons can look forward to exciting new programming and upcoming facility enhancements, including restoration of the heritage façade set to commence this year,” Grant Oyston, chair of the Revue’s board, said in a statement. “We are thankful to Danny and Letty for their continued partnership and support and to former Toronto mayor John Tory for his mediation efforts, which were of huge help in arriving at this successful result.”
The news comes after a tumultuous summer for the single-screen Revue. In June, the Mullins, who bought the Revue’s building on Roncesvalles Avenue in 2007, announced they wanted to take over the business from the board, effectively evicting cinema management. The move followed months of commercial-lease renegotiations, with the Revue agreeing to a rent hike from $10,000 per month to $15,000.
“They wanted me to save the movie house, so I saved it,” Danny Mullin told The Globe at the time, noting how he and his wife handed over the theatre’s operations to the film society when they purchased the property. “Over 17 years they haven’t done anything, none of the maintenance work.”
According to Oyston at the time, the board had spent more than $500,000 on improvements to the cinema, including asbestos removal, masonry work and the replacement of the original 1911 plumbing.
Just ahead of the Canada Day long weekend, in which it appeared that Revue management would be locked out of the site, the board obtained an interim injunction from the Ontario Superior Court of Justice, preventing the landlords from “evicting, locking out, or otherwise interfering with Revue’s business operations” until further court action. The injunction was shortly thereafter extended to Oct. 30, when the court was expected to make a final determination on the case.
The potential shuttering of the 220-seat Revue, which has been operating since 1912, sparked immediate backlash from moviegoers across the country. An online petition sprang up urging immediate action by government officials, garnering more than 13,000 signatures in less than 24 hours.
In 2023, the theatre earned $1.3-million in revenue, a 45-per-cent jump from the prepandemic year of 2019 (revenues are funnelled back to staff salaries and infrastructure). The business has more than 1,000 paid memberships, and its screenings are regularly sold out. And filmmakers both homegrown and international, including BlackBerry’s Matt Johnson and Oscar-winning director Guillermo del Toro, regularly sing its praises.
The news of the Revue’s future arrives just as the Toronto International Film Festival is halfway through its 49th edition, dominated by conversations around how the industry can best navigate the tremulous tensions in the film-exhibition sector.