The Revue Cinema on Roncesvalles Ave. in Toronto.Fernando Morales/The Globe and Mail
Toronto’s oldest operating movie theatre has been saved from immediate closing.
Late on Friday, the Revue Film Society, the not-for-profit board that operates the historic cinema in the city’s west end, obtained an interim 10-day injunction from the Ontario Superior Court of Justice, preventing the theatre’s landlords from “evicting, locking out, or otherwise interfering with Revue’s business operations” until trial or further court order.
“We are incredibly relieved to receive this injunction, halting what we believe would be an illegal eviction,” Grant Oyston, chair of the Revue Film Society, said in a statement. “The Revue Film Society is committed to maintaining and preserving the Revue Cinema and looks forward to continuing our work, including completing the façade restorations planned for this summer.”
On Thursday, the Revue’s board announced to patrons and staff that it might be forced to close as soon as July 1 after failing to reach an agreement for a new commercial lease with the building’s long-time landlords, Danny and Leticia Mullin. After months of negotiations, which included the Revue agreeing to a hike in rent from $10,000 per month to $15,000, discussions broke down, with the Mullins abruptly announcing to staff that they would instead take over the theatre and dissolve the board.
“No one is planning to evict anyone – I just want the board out of there. I’ve said that everyone who works there can keep their jobs if they want to work for me,” the 96-year-old Danny Mullin said in an interview Thursday. “I’ve been good to them, giving them everything that they’ve wanted, and they haven’t done anything since. All I want now is to get rid of the board. We’ll take over Monday morning, nothing changes.”
The Mullins purchased the Roncesvalles Avenue property, located on a prime stretch of commercial real estate, in 2007, handing over the theatre’s operations to the film society, a federally incorporated organization with 10 volunteer members from the community.
“They wanted me to save the movie house, so I saved it,” Mr. Mullin said. “Over 17 years they haven’t done anything, none of the maintenance work. They’re socialists. Wake up and smell the daisies.”
According to Mr. Oyston, in recent years the Revue’s board has spent more than $500,000 on improvements to the cinema, including asbestos removal, masonry work, and replacement of original 1911 plumbing. This past fall, the board approached the Mullins with plans for an $80,000 restoration of the building’s façade, to be paid for by the film society. Mr. Oyston and the board say their landlords refused to proceed with the work.
If the Revue had not obtained the injunction or secured a new lease agreement, its operators would have removed all the equipment it had purchased over the years, including the digital projector that is essential to running any modern cinema. Managers and staff also indicated that they would not work for the Mullins.
“The business licence is in our name, we own the equipment, we oversee the programming, we have the relationships with the distributors,” Mr. Oyston said. “We view this as a hostile takeover from Danny, but he won’t be able to seamlessly take over a cinema.”
The possible closing of the Revue, which has been operating since 1912, sparked immediate outcry from moviegoers across Toronto. An online petition sprang up urging immediate action by government officials, including Councillor Gord Perks and Mayor Olivia Chow, which garnered more than 13,000 signatures in less than 24 hours.
The tensions around the Revue rose as Toronto faces a rash of cultural crises in the live-arts performing sector, including the temporary shuttering of the Hot Docs Ted Rogers Cinema as that not-for-profit arts organization undergoes restructuring.