Opening and Building History
The Rio Theatre opened in 1938 at 1660 East Broadway, near the corner of Broadway and Commercial Drive in East Vancouver, promoted at the time as "ultra modern" and "Vancouver's Finest Suburban Theatre." It originally held around 800 seats with angled front rows for better sightlines. The building cycled through several incarnations: it closed in 1955 amid television competition, ran as the Rio Bowl bowling alley from roughly 1959 to 1976, reopened in 1982 as the Golden Princess Theatre screening Chinese-language films, and later became the Broadway Cinema around 2001 before being revitalized in 2008.
Programming Identity
Since Corinne Lea took over in 2008, the Rio has run as a multidisciplinary venue, describing itself as "a multimedia venue for premier independent cinema of feature films and live entertainment." Its slate mixes indie and foreign films, cult classics, and Hollywood blockbusters, including Friday midnight screenings, director's cuts, and filmmaker Q&As, with live music, stand-up comedy, comedy and film festivals, burlesque, drag shows, sing-alongs, and spoken word. The room also carries live satellite broadcasts of events like the Oscars, Grammys, and sports, and bills itself as the voted #1 independent theatre in Vancouver.
The 2012 Liquor-Licence Fight
In 2012, Corinne Lea waged a roughly four-month battle with BC's Liquor Control and Licensing Branch. When granted a primary liquor licence in January 2012, the LCLB attached a condition barring the theatre from showing any movies or cinematic screenings while licensed. After a public campaign with media attention and support from politicians including Spencer Chandra Herbert, Heather Deal, and then-mayor Gregor Robertson, BC changed its laws in April 2012 to allow alcohol service during film screenings, the first such allowance for a movie theatre in the province. Lea's effort earned her the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal.
2018 Save Campaign and Role in the Scene
When property rezoning around 2017 to 2018 opened the site to condo development and put the theatre on the market, a public Save the Rio campaign gathered more than 20,000 petition signatures and raised roughly $500,000 on Indiegogo to help Lea buy the building, with support from figures such as Ryan Reynolds and Kevin Smith. A City of Vancouver grant, reported as $375,000, helped secure the purchase, on the condition that the venue operate primarily as a cinema and live-entertainment space for ten years. The Rio remains one of the few fully independent movie theatres in Vancouver and a cultural anchor in East Vancouver near Commercial Drive.