
It’s the end of an era for MovieMart in downtown Kamloops, though there is good news for the video rental store.
The Kamloops Film Society has bought the store from its original owner – Kamloops City Councillor Denis Walsh – who’s been running it for the past 40 years. They now plan to keep the store running out of the Paramount Theatre at Fifth and Victoria downtown.
“The Kamloops Film Society’s mandate is to provide hand-picked, diverse, high-quality films to Kamloops and Area. Taking over the operations of the MovieMart video store is just another extension of that commitment,” KFS Executive Director, Dusan Magdolen, said, in a statement.
“Though we are coming through a very difficult financial period, and aren’t sure what our future will hold, we realize that diversification and evolution are the keys to our continued success, so taking on this new adventure was an obvious move and we couldn’t be happier about the potential benefits.”
In an interview, Magdolen told NL News it took a couple of weeks of discussions between the Film Society and Denis Walsh before the announcement was made today.
“Denis reached out to us that he was looking to shut down and to see if we could come to some sort of agreement,” he said. “It just makes a lot of sense for us. We’re in the business of connecting people with great films and he’s got a collection of about 25,000 there. The more we can diversify our operations, especially in this new climate, the better.”
Magdolen says the Film Society is “truly honoured” to keep Walsh’s 40-year collection of movies together giving people the chance to continue renting both new movies as well as older ones, including those not available on any streaming platform.
“Over the past four decades MovieMart has been collecting this very extensive and eclectic selection of movies,” Walsh said, in a statement, noting he has mixed feeling about closing down his store.
“It is wonderful the KFS will be keeping this unique diverse video library intact, allowing Kamloops movie fans the opportunity to still have access to these fine films.”
Speaking on NL Newsday, Walsh told NL News he believes his former store in the longest running video store anywhere in the world.
“I was searching about a year ago or more, and I found one, I think it was in Bristol, England, that claimed to be the oldest running video store. But they opened in 1983 and we were opened in 1982,” he said.
“They wouldn’t know there was a store in Kamloops that’s been open this long, especially under one owner. I know for sure that record we hold.”
Walsh says the longevity of Movie Mart is a testament to Kamloops area residents and their desire to support local.
“They kept us going through all kinds of things. You know from Rogers Video, Blockbuster Video, Movie Gallery…all these corporations that came in with big, deep pockets but the local audience just kept supporting the local independent video store,’ he added, noting it makes sense for the Kamloops Film Society to take over the store.
“They’ve already got the building and the location and everything in place, and they pay their heat and lights whether there’s a video store in there or not. I think they have a really good opportunity to keep it going.”
Over the next few weeks, the Film Society will be moving Walsh’s collection of movies over to the Paramount Theatre with plans to sort and organize it in preparation for a September opening.
“We’re getting the computer and the software as well so we’ll hopefully hire some sort of video store manager to help run that part of things,” Magdolen said. “The biggest thing right now, the focus, is getting the collection over here. We do have quite a bit of room upstairs, so I think we’ll be okay, but we have to see that.”
“I think we can get some shelves in front of the theatre two lobby, so we’ll have some movies out on display, but then we’ll have some sort of catalogue system out where people can kind of flip through.”
Magdolen adds people can donate any movies they’re hoping to get rid off to the Kamloops Film Society as well as VHS, DVD, and Blu-Ray players that will be rented – and potentially even sold – to people who are interested.
– With files from Jeff Andreas