The theatre space was used for a few years by an arcade before Chinook underwent a major redevelopment in the late 90s. The present day food court is roughly where the theatre used to be.
^ Expanding on my comment, the Capitol 4 is listed separately under its final name, Empire. Surprised at how little is in the main write up for this theatre which was Calgary’s premiere movie house and when it was closed and demolished in the early 1980s to make way for the Scotia Centre there was huge controversy. This was a beautiful theatre. I remember hearing that many of the seats were salvaged and installed in Castle Theatre, a live theatre venue at Aden Bowman Collegiate.
Nice theatre, rough part of town. Originally a single screen, they added a second during the Towne Cinema era. Originally they were called the Red and Blue theatres. In the 1970s they regularly showed matinees of The Man Called Flintstone, Hey There it’s Yogi Bear and Godzilla movies.
There were actually 2 Capitol Theatres. In the 1980s after the original was torn down they built the Capitol 4 a block to the south on 1st Avenue. It operated until the early 2000s when the Galaxy opened and they decided they only needed one downtown theatre.
The theatre space was used for a few years by an arcade before Chinook underwent a major redevelopment in the late 90s. The present day food court is roughly where the theatre used to be.
^ Expanding on my comment, the Capitol 4 is listed separately under its final name, Empire. Surprised at how little is in the main write up for this theatre which was Calgary’s premiere movie house and when it was closed and demolished in the early 1980s to make way for the Scotia Centre there was huge controversy. This was a beautiful theatre. I remember hearing that many of the seats were salvaged and installed in Castle Theatre, a live theatre venue at Aden Bowman Collegiate.
I just checked the location again (also visible on Street View) and it’s now Sundown Storage Solutions. Better change it’s status to Closed.
Nice theatre, rough part of town. Originally a single screen, they added a second during the Towne Cinema era. Originally they were called the Red and Blue theatres. In the 1970s they regularly showed matinees of The Man Called Flintstone, Hey There it’s Yogi Bear and Godzilla movies.
There were actually 2 Capitol Theatres. In the 1980s after the original was torn down they built the Capitol 4 a block to the south on 1st Avenue. It operated until the early 2000s when the Galaxy opened and they decided they only needed one downtown theatre.
Although the screens are still up, as of summer 2014 it’s being used as a parking lot for school buses.