Volume 6, Issue #3
June 17, 2005

"Put the Park Back in Drive"

Just when you thought he was done with the movie theatre business, Leonard Schein rescued the Park Theatre and re-opened the Cambie Street landmark last month with an unexpected level of success. More people came to the newly renovated and redone Park Theatre on its re-opening weekend, May 27-29, to watch Ladies in Lavender than any of the other 57 North American cinemas showing the British movie.

With his keen business sense and love of independent, obscure and foreign films, Schein has just about done it all in the movie theatre business here in Vancouver. Having owned everything from the Varsity, Fifth Avenue, Ridge, Starlight and even the Park Theatre, Leonard was also the person responsible for starting the Vancouver International Film Festival in 1979. I, myself, remember going to the Fifth Avenue Cinemas when it was still a "Festival Cinema," and how they tried to sell us on their membership.

Even when Schein sold the Fifth Avenue and Park Theatre to Alliance Atlantis Cinemas, of which Famous Players holds a 49% interest, the theatres decided to keep this idea of the membership. Indeed, I worked at the Park Theatre as a "cast member" for nearly three years. From selling movie tickets and memberships to popping popcorn to telling guests (they are guests, not customers) to kindly turn off their cell phones out of courtesy for the other guests in the theatre, I did it all. I left to pursue other endeavours and a few months ago, Alliance Atlantis closed its doors on the Park, gutted it out, and turned its sights on making a success out of Famous Players' newly opened Paramount Vancouver.

Several things set the Park Theatre and others of its kind apart from the 21st century idea of the moviehouse. For one, it had but a single screen. In this day in age when bigger is better, we see the Paramounts, Colossuses and Silvercities with 10, 12, even 18 screens in the case of Silvercity Riverport. Second, there is no parking lot. Perhaps one of the moviehouse's best selling points was its dedication to the independent and foreign film market. Sure, the Park Theatre, while under Alliance Atlantis management, showed the odd blockbuster from time to time - I was employed there when it showed such films as Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, Apocalypse Now Redux and The Lord of the Rings - but the films shown also included the more obscure like Kandahar, Atanarjuat, and Amelie.

Leonard Schein ran the Park Theatre for 11 years and just could not stand by and watch it die. Investing over $300,000 in the renovation and re-opening process, he did not expect to make any money off this most recent venture. It ultimately does not make much business sense in this age of the DVD, multiplexes, and other challenges. Perhaps one of the greatest challenges Leonard will face in the years to come is the construction of the RAV line though Cambie Street.

The dig and cover plan seems set in stone (no pun intended) at this point, with Cambie merchants protesting all the way. This scheme could potentially make a business unopenable and hence unviable for a year or more as the construction makes its way from False Creek, down Cambie Street toward Richmond and the Airport. It's clear that Schein cares for the local merchants, buying the butter for the popcorn from the Choices Market across the way and baked goods from Tomato Cafe down the street. It will be interesting how this story pans itself out as the construction of the RAV line gets underway, but regardless of the outcome, Leonard was certain that "the theatre deserved the money . . . . I hope not to lose money, but I did this mostly because I thought it should be there."

I think it should be there too.