Paradise No More

Just heard word from Jerry Szczur, the owner of two Festival Cinemas venues, that the Paradise on Bloor Street West will sadly also join the three other Festival theatres slated for closure by the end of June.

In a press release issued today, Mr. Szczur said, "These are difficult times for the movie business and even more so for the repertoire cinemas."

He notes there are many reasons for his decision: some are financial, others are competitive in nature, pragmatic factors as well as his personal considerations.

"These cinemas have required long hard hours of work and commitment which has been propelled by my personal interest to show films the way I think they were meant to be shown, on the big screen with an audience," he said. "I have always felt strongly that our movies should be of a reasonable cost to our customers."

The Fox Theatre (in the Beach) will hopefully be leased out to someone whose intends to keep it running as a rep. cinema in the future.

"I would like to close by saying that I have enjoyed being a partner in Festival Cinemas," he said, giving a nod to his two business partners, Tom Litviskas and Peter McQuillan, who both passed away in the last few years. "I feel strongly about the sense of community that the cinemas has offered to the different neighbourhoods as well as historical sentiments. I feel particularly connected to the Fox Theatre in the Beaches as I have operated the business from that location for almost 30 years."

This story keeps getting more tragic by the moment.