This Ontario city is home to the world's smallest cinema with just 12 seats

I am a sucker for a movie on the big screen with a side of nachos and a Diet Coke, so when the opportunity to check out the world's smallest theatre in the Ontario city of Stratford — a micro-sized take on the experience — came my way, I was instantly game.

The Little Prince Micro Cinema feels transportive from the moment you open the door. To be clear, it's not trying to compete with modern-day multiplexes. Instead, it offers something entirely different: nostalgia, old-world charm, and of course, the magic of cinema.

I walked in and instantly felt like I had stepped back in time. The door opens onto a miniature Victorian-era theatre lobby, drenched in rich reds and golds. There's a concession stand — hello, popcorn! — a curated selection of drinks (including alcoholic options, thanks to a full liquor license, and that Diet Coke I so love), and a small lounge table at the centre where guests can gather before or after a screening.

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This is literally the smallest cinema in the WORLD 🎥🤯

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"Our space really does run [the] gamut," owner Leigh Cooney tells blogTO, explaining that the theatre mainly specializes in private screenings for intimate groups, turning special occasions into even bigger milestones through experience of a tiny cinema.

Little Prince Micro Cinema owner Leigh Cooney.

As I made my way through the lobby, which pays homage to the iconic silent film star Charlie Chaplin with a near life-size cutout, a red carpet lead me straight into a recordholder: the world's smallest purpose-built cinema, as recognized by Guinness World Records. 

I swung open the door, and the 175.36-square-foot room revealed a quaint venue with just 12 cushioned seats, all in red.

I quickly settled in, and the lights went out as the first trailer began to play. Fittingly,  even the trailer was for the 1950 period drama Sunset Boulevard.

And then came the movie I had sat down to watch. Any guesses?

The credits rolled to Chaplin's edited version of the silent 1942 comedy The Gold Rush. Listen, I'm not one to watch a black-and-white silent film on my own; it's just not my thing. But here, watching the Little Tramp fight to secure a fortune in the Klondike gold mines while nursing a broken heart — all without any dialogue— felt completely warranted.

Without the usual distractions of a large theatre, the old-school production felt like it was transporting me back in time, with the surrounding ambiance serving as the perfect backdrop.

Needless to say, this tiny cinema made some big waves. Not only has it been recognized by Guinness World Records in 2021, but it also landed on Time Out's lists of both the 100 greatest and 100 most beautiful cinemas in the world, and it was even once namedropped by comedian Stephen Colbert as the setup to a joke — something Cooney calls "awesome." 

But the story behind the space is less about chasing records and more about its evolution.

Before it was a cinema, the location operated as a gift shop called Meet Your Maker from 2016 to 2020. Tucked inside, where the cinema now stands, was a small art gallery that hosted exhibitions. At the same time, Cooney was already organizing film screenings for local filmmakers around Stratford.

Eventually, the idea clicked. "Why not turn this into something where local filmmakers can screen their work?" the owner thought to himself.

While searching for inspiration, Cooney says he came across what was then considered the world's smallest movie theatre, located in Brazil and already larger than his own space. It had also permanently closed. "It organically snowballed on its own into this," he says.

To qualify for the record, the space had to function as a fully-operational cinema. Cooney knew that if he was going to do this, he had to commit. What followed was a surprisingly complicated process involving Guinness World Records, multiple rejected witness submissions, and a last-minute scramble that brought in a local architect and a University of Toronto professor to validate the claim.

"It was a pain, mostly because they didn't understand what we were," Cooney says. "But we got there."

As I walked out of The Little Prince Micro Cinema, I was confident that I had tapped into its ethos: how it transforms something familiar — i.e., Chaplin in all his comedic glory — into a truly memorable experience that stays with you for a long time. 

The Little Prince Micro Cinema is located at 62 Wellington St. in Stratford, Ont.