Montreal: Local distribs are expressing optimism the brand new AMC Cinemas 22 megaplex will become a welcome downtown venue for Canadian and indie movie fare, including more commercial French-language films.

AMC Cinemas 22 is located in the Pepsi Forum complex, a Canderel-developed shopping and entertainment centre housed in the former Montreal Forum hockey shrine.

Many smaller downtown Montreal venues receptive to programming indie English-track movies have closed, with most of the action going to the 12-screen Famous Players’ Paramount magaplex, the country’s top-grossing venue.

Guy Gagnon, president of distributor Alliance Atlantis Vivafilm, says the opening of the new AMC stadium-seating theatre ‘is very positive for Canadian cinema’ and should solve the problem of the shortage of quality downtown screens.

Gagnon says AMC’s May 4 opening included a full slate of specialized films including many films from AAV, among them John Greyson’s Law of Enclosures, Patrice Leconte’s The Widow of St-Pierre, an English subtitled version of Denis Villeneuve’s Maelstrom and the French hit Harry, un ami qui vous veut du bien.

‘This new theatre is a necessity for Montreal,’ says Gagnon. ‘There was only one good theatre in [downtown] Montreal and that is the Paramount, which can’t service everyone. They’ve been trying to do miracles for months to satisfy all the distributors, but it’s impossible.’

Gagnon says with 22 screens, AMC effectively has to program movies other than studio blockbusters. The availability issue has not been as problematic on the French side because of newer megaplexes such as Quartier Latin (Cineplex Odeon) and StarCite (FP), he adds.

AMC gambled big time for its Montreal opening, paying top dollar for exclusive rights to the Universal Pictures release The Mummy Returns. The bid paid off in spades, with the new venue raking in a mind-blowing $1.1 million during the film’s three-day opening weekend, May 4-6.

The film’s North American gross ranked as the second all-time highest, more than $70 million.

The 4,294-seat AMC Cinemas 22 is Kansas City-based AMC’s seventh Canadian venue. AMC Courtney Park 16 opened in Mississauga, ON on April 6. *

-www.amctheaters.com