Toronto fans are calling on elected leaders to protect the Revue Cinema after its board announced yesterday that it was past the end of this month. If no agreement is reached, the venue may be forced to shutter its doors on July 1. On Thursday, a former Revue employee launched a petition urging the city’s elected representatives to “step up in support of the Revue to ensure this not-for-profit theatre never closes.
” As of Friday afternoon, the petition had more than 11,000 signatures. “Toronto’s oldest running cinema has been defining the cinematic experience in our city for many years, and cannot be allowed to disappear due to the demands of an unreasonable, profit-driven landlord,” the petition reads. The prospect of the closing its doors sent an immediate ripple of panic through the city’s .
“It would be a devastating blow to the film community in Toronto,” said Corey Atad, a freelance journalist and movie critic. “The theatre has become the beating heart of the cinema scene in the city at a time when multiplexes and other theatres are struggling to survive. To close such a well-run, beloved institution is almost unthinkable.
” The 245-seat Revue Cinema first opened in 1912. The theatre closed in 2006 following the fall of the Festival Cinemas chain and the death of building owner Peter McQuillan. A year later, Toronto resident .
Mullin then leased the building to the Revue Film Society, who transformed the theatre into a not-for-profit, community-driv.
