Grab your popcorn! A microcinema just opened in Cambridge

They call it the big screen, but this movie theatre experience is pretty small.

The Little Prince Micro-Cinema – a movie theatre with just 12 seats – is opening Friday in the Gaslight District in Galt.

"We're kind of tongue in cheek having fun with the idea of calling it the world's second smallest movie theatre," Leigh Cooney, the owner and operator, told CBC News.

In 2020, Cooney opened his first microcinema location in Stratford, Ont. In 2021, the Stratford location earned the Guinness World Record for the world's smallest movie theatre with just 12 seats.

Like the Stratford location, the new Galt location will also have 12 seats, and will be open to both public and private screenings. 

'A passion project' 

On their website, it says that The Little Prince Micro-Cinema "operate[s] on a community-before-profits model."

"We strive to leave the community a better place than we found it," the website said.

"It's very much a passion project," said Cooney. He said the business does make money, but that it's mostly from private bookings, and it's not a lot. 

"Eighty per cent of our time is spent on private bookings," he said. "Every week we do anywhere from two to say eight ticketed movies, like a regular movie theatre," he added, explaining how his small cinema would not survive if he mainly did ticketed events like a regular movie theatre. 

"[Otherwise] we'd have to charge like $45 a ticket or something." 

Cooney said that what works for them right now is having the theatre booked out for private events where the clients pick what movies they want to watch. He said clients can choose whatever movie they like as long as they are not very recent movies, explaining that the licensing for playing more recent movies "is just too expensive." 

"Then of course there's concession sales, and all that on top of [the private bookings]," he said. "So it works out well."

Delayed opening

The Galt location was supposed to open in December 2024, but Cooney says he's had to deal with several challenges –  some unique to his business idea. The first challenge was the manpower and budget.

"We're very small and our budget is very small," he said. "I basically built it along with my parents and my brothers… it's just a family job."

A more unique hurdle to his venture was dealing with building codes. More specifically, Cooney said there was nothing in the building codes for his version of a movie theatre.

"There's movie theatres in the building code," he said. "But they require a lot of things that we would never need because… the code is written for 800-seat, massive movie theatres."

Cooney says the back and forth between him and the Cambridge building department took a lot of time, adding another layer to the delay. 

CBC News reached out to the downtown Cambridge Business Improvement Area (BIA) for comments on Cooney's experience navigating building codes. 

Brian Kennedy, executive director of the downtown Cambridge BIA, told CBC News in an email that the BIA was not previously aware of the microcinema's opening, but that the BIA is "thrilled to see new arts and culture spaces" opening in downtown Cambridge.

"The downtown Cambridge BIA strongly supports film and the addition of more exciting things to enjoy in our community," Kennedy said. "We've proudly supported events like the Grand River Film Festival in our core, and are encouraged by the growing momentum behind creative, independent film experiences like this one."

Cooney says despite the challenges with his Galt location, he's thankful for the support of the Galt Gaslight District, which he described as very "patient" and "supportive." 

Future direction

Cooney says with how much time he spent trying to bring the second location to life, he's already thinking of opening a third location.

"I don't know when or where, but I think what I'd like to probably do is change the style a little bit," he said. "Maybe do something retro, like the 80s… lots of flashing lights and neon."

For its first first public screening on Friday, the Galt location will be playing the 1944 classic film Gaslight, which follows the story of a young woman whose husband gradually manipulates her into thinking she is going insane. 

The Galt location will also be holding a free public screening on Saturday.