Yorkdale Six Cinemas
3401 Dufferin Street,
Toronto,
ON
M6A 2T9
3401 Dufferin Street,
Toronto,
ON
M6A 2T9
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Additional Info
Previously operated by: 20th Century Theaters, Famous Players
Previous Names: Yorkdale Cinema
Nearby Theaters
News About This Theater
- Mar 3, 2004 — Cineplex Founder Nat Taylor Passes Away
The Yorkdale Cinema was the first cinema in Canada to be located in a shopping mall when it opened in as a twin screen cinema in February 25, 1964. One screen was named Yorkdale Theatre, the other (smaller) screen was named Yorkdale Cinema. In 1980 the (larger) Yorkdale Theatre screen was twinned. In December 1986, the Yorkdale Cinema added 3 more additional screens, becoming the Yorkdale Six Cinemas.
The old Yorkdale Six Cinemas closed its doors in June 1999 when the new 10-screen Silvercity Cinemas (now Cineplex Cinemas Yorkdale) was opened on June 25, 1999 the other side of the mall.
Contributed by
Chad Irish
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Recent comments (view all 13 comments)
Depends on what you think is old Chad, I’m 52 now so I was 12 when the mall and theatres opened. We went there alot when it opened.
I uploaded the February 25th, 1964 grand opening ad for both the Theatre and Cinema. The Theatre is an Famous Players and the Cinema is an 20th Century Theatres. I also uploaded the 1986 ad as a six-plex. the border text reads 3+3=Yorkdale 6
I love all your uploads Mike, where do you find them without having to go to a library and look on microfilm?
If the information on the Rivest site is correct, The original Yorkdale Theatres opened along with the rest of the original Yorkdale Mall in 1964. It was one of the earliest, if not the earliest, purpose-built twin theatres in Canada. As Tim Elliot noted, one theatre was referred to as the Yorkdale Theatre and was the larger of the two; the other was the Yorkdale Cinema (you can see this fact in the signage in the black and white photo). This may have been a reflection of the fact that originally, the theater was a joint venture between Famous Players and 20th Century Theatres, with perhaps each company responsible for one of the two theatres.
In 1980, the Yorkdale Theatre was split in half. In 1986, three screens were added in an addition to the building; at some point around that time, Famous Players absorbed 20th Century.
The Yorkdale 6 closed in 1999 when the SilverCity 10 opened; was the SilverCity a new build or did it incorporate at least part of the space occupied by the Yorkdale 6? If it was a completely new build, the Yorkdale 6 should probably have its own listing.
This theatre was built by Nat Taylor’s Twentieth Century Theatres in 1964. Twentieth Century Theatres was a partner affiliate of Famous Players Canadian Corporation, but Nat Taylor had the management rights and the right to book these theatres!! Probably one of the first theatres to have an escalator to take you down to the main level of the theatres!!
Just looing for clarification, I have been doing quite a bit of reading of the old Box Office magazines and I have a copy of the article that says Nat Taylor opened a twin theatre in the Place Ville Marie shopping promenade in Montreal in 1962. Same opening date as listed for opening of that theatre on this web site. Was the Place Ville Marie not considered a shopping mall?
Place Ville Marie is an large office complex with a large shopping concourse like the TD Center in Toronto.
I’m wondering if Cineplex Entertainment is slowly phasing out the SilverCity brand, I noticed on their web site that this location is now called Cineplex Cinemas Yorkdale (formerly SilverCity Yorkdale). Same with the former SilverCity Oakville & VIP, now called Cineplex Cinemas Oakville & VIP
The Silvercity was indeed a new build (in answer to CSWalczak’s question) they built it on the opposite side of the mall I believe. It was also built on a partial second floor, whereas the original entrance was accessible by street level, and then took you downstairs. There was no evidence of the Yorkdale six ever existing after they built the 1999 theatre. It makes me sad because I saw so many movies there as a kid, I really want to find some archival footage of the cinema from 1986 onward.
The original Yorkdale Theatre that was split became screens 5 and 6 after the 1986 expansion. The original Yorkdale cinema was screen 4 and the new screens were 1-3. One of the few Toronto-area cinemas that had box office windows facing outside (the only other one I can remember is Sherway). From the ground-level entrance you would head down separate staircases to either the “new” side (1-3) or “old” side (4-6) one level below — each with its own lobby and concession stand. Same seats as the Uptown, which were taller than most other Famous Players builds of the time. The theatre entrance was located in about the middle of the aerial photo of the mall, to the left of that small surface parking area bordered by the parkade and Eaton’s.