‘Here’s looking at you, kid’: Waterloo cinema celebrates 40 years

CTV’s Heather Senoran finds out how a Waterloo cinema has stayed relevant by going beyond big blockbusters and focusing on community.

A cinema in Waterloo, Ont. is ready for its closeup after four decades in business.

Princess Cinemas is marking their 40th anniversary on Thursday by hosting a screening of the first movie ever shown at the theatre: Casablanca. The special event starts at 6:15 p.m. and is free for cinema members.

After the credits roll, fans are invited to continue the celebration on Princess Street with an outdoor screening of Stop Making Sense, a concert film featuring the band Talking Heads. An anniversary cake and doughnuts will be served and original 40-year-old film guides will be on display.

History of The Original Princess

Princess Cinemas opened its first single-screen theatre at 6 Princess Street West behind the Huether Hotel.

“[I] started it when I was a wee little 25-year-old back in 1985,” founder John Tutt said.

When it first opened, tickets were $2.75 for members.

That location still exists today and is now known as The Original Princess Cinema, while it’s counterpart on King Street North, is called Princess Twin Cinemas.

The Original Princess can be found on the second floor of a 19th century brewery building.

It stays true to its roots and continues to work on a ‘calendar art-house’ programming model, featuring international, independent and Canadian films alongside festival hits, documentaries, cult classics, Hollywood films and special series.

“Our audience skews a little but younger than it was even 10 – 15 years ago,” Tutt said. “The young people are rediscovering a chance to disconnect from their phones and sit and watch a movie for 90 minutes or a couple of hours.”

How people watch movies has changed since the 80s. But Tutt said he and his son, who is also in the business, are up for the challenge.

“‘Hey, John, you know, VHS is coming. You’re going to go out of business.’ I’d hear all that,” Tutt said. “‘Oh, Blu-rays are coming. No. Oh, no. You’re going to go to business.’ [Now with] streaming. It made it a little bit tighter, and so as a programmer of events bringing in movies, classics and things like that, you have to be a little bit smarter to rise above the noise of what’s streaming and what people can do.

There was a time when fans thought their beloved cinema would fade to black.

In 2019, The Original Princess Cinema was issued a notice to vacate.

The building’s manager said they were facing financial pressures as taxes and insurance rates went up.

In a letter posted to the Huether Hotel’s social media accounts, the building owners said, “… in the past year our insurance rose by 30 per cent and our property taxes increased by around $27,000. This resulted in an absolute need for us to increase all our tenants’ rents to the going rate of the neighbourhood…”

Tutt said the theatre simply could not bear the cost of increased rent and began making plans to go out on a high note.

However, a few weeks after the news broke, the building owners reversed their decision amid public outcry, allowing the cinema to stay open.