Alongside movie theatres and multiplexes worldwide, the humble one screen Denman Cinemas premiered the remake of the 1970s Bollywood film Agneepath to great buzz last week.
Naz Jamshedian, whose husband Mike owns the Denman with partner Aki Kaur, follows flicks from her native Mumbai and plans to bring half a dozen big-name Bollywood films to Â鶹´«Ã½Ó³»each year. All of the Bollywood cinemas in the city have disappeared.
Facebook buzz, the assistance of a public relations specialist and posters helped fill half the seats in the 425 capacity theatre, the typical volume, this past weekend.
Mike and Kaur took over the defunct Denman just over a year ago. They invested in a projector that allows them to play films of any format, replaced the seats and reached out to the community.
Mike, who two decades ago emigrated from India where he'd helped run movie theatres, had sought a new location to operate after managing other theatres in Metro Vancouver.
"We've got a lot of experience in the business. We really love movies, too," Jamshedian said.
Now they're building a loyal following and appealing to diverse desires.
The Denman shows foreign films alongside such family-friendly fare as Puss in Boots.
It rents the theatre for screenings and shares revenue with others at least once a week.
The non-profit First Weekend Club shows a Canadian film one to three times a month, with the National Film Board documentary Pink Ribbons, Inc. premiering at the Denman, Feb. 1.
Movies for Mommies recently started screening lunchtime movies every second Thursday.
Local actor Christopher Logan showed SKETCH, the film he directed, at the Denman in October, hosted a sing-along to White Christmas in December and will do the same for Moulin Rouge, Feb. 18.
The Â鶹´«Ã½Ó³»Serbian Film Festival touched down at Denman Cinemas in November, the Â鶹´«Ã½Ó³»South African Film Festival will enliven the theatre in April and the DOXA documentary film festival will light its screen in May.
"The asset that we have in our theatre is an extremely large lobby," Jamshedian said. "There's a lot of space for mingling and especially setting up lots of tables if they want to do fundraisers. The Serbian Film Festival, they had a great setup done where they had tables in the middle, it kind of looked like a mini lounge."
Sustaining a single-screen theatre as an independent isn't easy. It's been lights out for the Van East Cinema and the Hollywood Theatre and the Rio recently secured a liquor licence to boost its bottom line, but now it isn't permitted to show films.
Distributors give the nearby Scotiabank, Fifth Avenue and Cinemark theatre at Tinseltown first preference, according to Jamshedian.
"Granville [7] Cinemas is also a move-over theatre like us, once the Scotiabank and the International Village drop the movie," she added. "Only then can Granville or ourselves pick it up, but then Granville does not let us do that at that time. Because they have the strength of seven screens, [they will] hold onto the product for a long, long time. And then when we get the movie, the movie's going to be on DVD in two weeks or it's already on DVD."
So Denman Cinemas concentrates not only on acquiring the "right product" but also on partnering with local businesses including Central Bistro, which offers a dinner and movie deal, and Coast Plaza Hotel, which offers free validated parking, and on customer service.
"It should always be an event when people go to a movie. It's not just like flicking a channel and seeing a movie," Jamshedian said. "It makes it easier for the customers to know you by name and to know what's coming, and to build that kind of rapport with them is very important to survive and so you know you have those loyal customers coming in all the time."
Agneepath runs at Denman Cinemas until Feb. 2.
Twitter: @Cheryl_Rossi
