Vancouver’s Historic Park Theatre To Reopen With New Owners & High-Profile Financial Investors Including Sean Baker, Finn Wolfhard, Osgood Perkins & Mike Flanagan

EXCLUSIVE: Osgood Perkins, Mike Flanagan, Sean Baker, Zach Lipovsky, and Finn Wolfhard are among the high-profile names who have invested cash in a new ownership group that has been established to reopen Vancouver‘s long-running Park Theatre. 

Initially opened in 1941 as an Odeon, the Park Theatre was bought by Cineplex in 2013. The multiplex conglomerate announced earlier this month that it was halting operations at the Cambie Street theatre, with its final day of projection being yesterday, October 26. 

The Park Theatre will now reopen with the team behind Vancouver’s Rio Theatre leading operations. The new Park Theatre team will be led by the Rio’s CEO, Corinne Lea. They have received financial backing from a group of high-profile local and international industry names, such as Finn Wolfhard (Stranger Things), Chris Ferguson (Backrooms), Osgood Perkins (Longlegs), Mike Flanagan (Doctor Sleep), Sean Baker (Anora) and Samantha Quan (Anora), and Zach Lipovsky (Final Destination Bloodlines, Freaks). 

Other financiers include industry professionals from behind the camera, like film editor Graham Fortin (Keeper), sound designer Eugenio Battaglia (Eternity), post supervisor Andy Levine (Longlegs), film coordinator Jill Orsten, and film attorney Christina Bulbrook (A Complete Unknown). 

The Rio team first orchestrated the deal when they approached Chris Ferguson, the Vancouver-based producer and owner of Oddfellows Pictures and co-owner of Phobos, to assemble a group of filmmakers and film professionals to finance the project. 

“Film is so central to the essence of Vancouver. I’m thrilled, not only that we were able to save this historic theatre that I went to as a child, but that it was a group of some of our most significant filmmakers who came together to do it,” Ferguson said in a statement. “There’s no one in the city I would trust more to keep it alive than the team at the Rio.”

Built in 1938 as a single-screen movie theatre, the Rio is one of Vancouver’s most popular and enduring independent venues. The venue hosts both live performances and cinema.

“The Rio Theatre is very excited by the opportunity to revive Vancouver’s historic, art-deco Park Theatre in the beloved Cambie Village neighborhood,” Lea said in a statement. “We are grateful for the support of this impressive group of film industry professionals, and could not do this without them! After almost two decades of rocking the Rio, we look forward to this expansion and bringing the same fun, energy, and passion to a new location.”