The Red Mill apparently opened in 1907 and featured silent movies, vaudeville acts and a penny arcade, and went dark around 1978 before being
revived 20 years later by Peller Estates' Jeff Peller and future Pearl Company man Gary Santucci. Its time-capsule decor packed a punch -- huge silk lanterns and giant golden lions guarding the stage (Sonic Unyon used the space memorably for
a fifth anniversary concert in October of that year). When the ownership changed in the early 2000s (from Fortune Village to Harvest Moon), the Chinese imperial decor was stripped out for something inoffensive and contemporary, vaguely nightclubby. Still a neat space but it was a corker before.
Transit runs past all local cinemas save the Starlite. Like any bus service, it just takes time (roughly 45 minutes from King & James to SilverCity Ancaster or Hamilton Mountain; about an hour to SilverCity Burlington, as compared to 20 to Westdale), and that's more the fault of mediocre public transit than the multiplexes.
With Burlington’s
second-run house Encore now closed, the Hamilton market is reduced to five cinemas (plus a seasonal drive-in)... currently playing 15 movies on 39 screens in a CMA containing nearly three-quarters of a million people.