The non-profit organization that operates the beloved west-end Revue Cinema has won an interim court injunction preventing the landlords from closing the curtains — at least for now.
The Revue Cinema Society sought the injunction to prevent the building’s owners, Daniel and Leticia Mullin, from “evicting, locking out, or otherwise interfering with Revue’s business operations at the premises at 400 Roncesvalles Avenue” until a trial takes place, says the Ontario Superior Court order issued Friday evening.
“Our understanding is this injunction enables us to … remain open without interference past July 1st until a trial can be scheduled,” said Grant Oyston, chair of the Revue Film Society. The matter is scheduled to return to court on July 8.
Oyston said the current lease has renewal options, and that during negotiations over the past nine months the Mullins made commitments regarding the renewal, leading the society to program films and events into October.
“To do a 180 with two business days left in the lease, does not constitute a legal eviction and that’s why we got the injunction so this can go to trial and we can exercise our rights under the lease,” Oyston said. The Revue Cinema Society has spent more than $500,000 on improvements, and was planning to undertake a major restoration of the building’s facade, Oyston added.
But Leticia Mullin told the Star on Friday evening that the film society’s board of directors has dragged its heels on the renovations that should have happened years ago. And, she says, the couple has been extraordinarily fair, increasing the monthly rent from $7,000 to $10,200 since signing the lease in 2007.
“Now they are suing us … I’m upset,” she said, adding, “we don’t want to close the movies, we want to run it ourselves,” she said, “but we want to get rid of the board.”
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.” It had more than 11,000 signatures Friday afternoon.
“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 Revue closing its doors sent an immediate ripple of panic through the city’s embattled arts community.
“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 Daniel Mullin was heralded as a saviour after he spent $1 million to purchase the building. Mullin then leased the building to the Revue Film Society, who transformed the theatre into a not-for-profit, community-driven cinema.
Will Sloan, a film critic and journalist, said the Revue has been thriving, while many movie theatres have struggled to recover post-pandemic and counter the threat of streaming. “Their programming is in touch with the zeitgeist, and the programmers have built a level of trust with their audiences that they can also be challenging and adventurous. The Revue’s screenings are consistently successful and often sold-out.”
According to a financial audit provided to the Star, last year marked the highest revenue the Revue Film Society recorded since its inception. The Revue offers monthly series like the horror-centric Nightmare Alley; the neo-noir focused Neon Dreams; and the fun and rowdy Drunken Cinema series. Then there’s Dumpster Raccoon, a series featuring “trashy” cult films and live performances before each film.
Culture writer and movie critic Nathalie Atkinson is the mind behind the costume design series, Designing the Movies, which launched at the Revue in 2016. She’s since presented more than 80 movies and events. For her, the Revue is all about community.
“The Revue is a scrappy underdog — nimble, lean, and doing more with a lot less than many other cultural institutions,” she said. “I especially love chatting with the audience after the movie, when the crowd spills out onto the sidewalk in front of the theatre and people, who don’t otherwise know one another, compare fresh notes.”
Sloan, who has been a regular at the Revue since he saw a martial arts film there in 2006, agrees that the venue is more than just a place to watch movies. He recalls a recent sold-out screening of “The Wizard of Oz” on 35mm.
“It felt like the whole neighbourhood was united at this screening: young, old, hipsters, ‘Film Twitter’ personalities, families. In a time when streaming had made cinema an increasingly housebound, isolated experience, this screening reminded of its communal power.”
Saffron Maeve, a series programmer at the Paradise Theatre, has been visiting the Revue since she was a child. “The Revue is a staple in the Toronto film community, in part because it’s one of very few theatres to screen 35 mm and 16 mm prints,” she said. “The loss of the Revue would be devastating not only culturally and socially, but at the level of physical film. It’s hard to argue the merits of preserving film if there are no opportunities to show it.”
Sloan said the landlord’s plan to fire the Revue’s board and turn the theatre into a private business is “sadly typical” of Toronto, “a city built around the whims of our landlord class.”
“The landlord is unbelievably arrogant if he thinks he can do a better job.”
Maeve echoed Sloan’s point, emphasizing the “vital” efforts of the board. “The arts sector is not some formulaic project — you cannot replicate its cultivated community and success if you’re driven by greed. Patrons are sure to observe a change in those values.”
City Councillor Gord Perks told the Star that he is “in complete support of the current board and management.”
On Friday, Bhutila Karpoche, the MPP for Parkdale—High Park, said she was moved by her community’s “immediate and overwhelming support” for the Revue. “All of us in the community want to see this theatre continue to operate the way it has been, we want it to be community run and not-for-profit, and to provide the kind of programming they have been,” she said.
Atad, the film critic, said his most cherished memory from the Revue was taking his mom to see the Bette Midler movie “Beaches”: “We cried together, of course, and so did everyone else in the audience.”
“These institutions are important because they are where we can experience the beauty of culture in a space of community,” he said. “I’ve made friends at the Revue. I’ve learned lessons about life at the Revue. Why take that away without good reason?”
