Dunbar Theatre

A good rep: Independent cinemas in Vancouver

Proudly serving Vancouver’s West Side for decades, the Art Deco-era Dunbar Theatre is an anomaly in Vancouver’s disappearing heritage scene. Opened since 1935, it’s undergone many an ownership shift and was threatened with demolition in the late ‘90s. But being as it is such a community institution, the locals rallied and the cinema was saved. It continues to offer some of the comfiest seats and what some consider the best popcorn in town while showing current movies in its one-theatre space. A true gem in a city that often places the new and shiny ahead of the historical and established.