Looking to beat streaming fatigue? This popular Toronto film shop is embracing the physical media resurgence

TORONTO — The Criterion Closet is expanding to Toronto.

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Criterion, a boutique distributor of physical media, has long been famous for the tiny room of shelves in its New York office — shelves that are filled with a curated selection of some of the best movies in the world.

In what might be one of the most brilliant marketing strategies ever, Criterion has long invited filmmakers and actors — including Martin Scorsese, Guillermo del Toro, Christopher Nolan, Robert De Niro, Jodie Foster and Cate Blanchett — to participate in making videos of themselves perusing the titles and taking home a selection of films for their personal use.

(Fun fact: Blanchett choosing Guy Maddin’s My Winnipeg in her Criterion Closet visit led to Maddin and Blanchett working together on the 2024 satire Rumours.)

This time last year, a mobile version of the Criterion Closet showed up at the Toronto International Film Festival. Cinephiles lined up at the fest’s epicentre — the corner of John and King streets — and waited for up to five hours to have three minutes of the Criterion Closet experience (except they paid for the videos, of course).

This year they’re lining up again, but this time it’s at a permanent store, Cinema Cellar, on the corner of John and Nelson streets, located between the TIFF Lightbox and the Scotiabank Cinemas.

It is Criterion’s first brick-and-mortar store. During the TIFF run, it will sell exclusively Criterion products, and it will maintain a Criterion presence through most of the store after TIFF — but allow other boutique Blu-ray/4K brands such as Arrow Video and Kino Lorber into the mix.

“We had such a success in Toronto last year when Criterion brought the Mobile Closet here,” said Criterion’s executive director of physical media, Angie Bucknell. “We had over 1,000 visitors over the weekend.” (The closet was so tiny, they could only fit two customers at a time.)
In Canada, Criterion is sold exclusively by Cinema Cellar, formerly known as Unobstructed View. The company rebranded after Blue Fox Entertainment purchased it last year.

Though the store’s retail space is approximately 700 square feet, it can accommodate up to 20 customers at a time, says Cinema Cellar executive vice-president Ian Goggins. He adds that they have already surpassed the number of last year’s closet visitors, averaging about 750 customers per day since opening Sept. 10.

When Goggins and his Cinema Cellar partner Dave Hudakoc saw the reaction to the mobile Criterion Closet last year, they realized a Criterion retail outlet had potential beyond the more mature film buff.

“One of the things that really got us going on it was that probably about 80 to 85 per cent of the visitors were under the age of 30,” Goggins says.

“And that was when we realized this is not just the old-school collectors. And that was really the impetus for us to do this,” he says. “We saw just, like, a sheer appreciation of what Criterion did, everything from the artwork to the restorations to the care and attention that they took with their product.”

“We watched very closely what was going on with vinyl and the resurgence of physical media in general,” Goggins says. “And we thought, there is something analogous about what we’re seeing with Blu-ray.

“There were a lot of people having a little bit of streaming fatigue,” Goggins says. “And there was literally a whole generation that never really had physical media. They basically grew up with streaming.”

In short, streaming has become the equivalent of channel-flipping on cable TV. Putting a disc in a player remains more of a special occasion.

“I think the idea of intentional viewing became something that people were very interested in,” Goggins says.

Brendan Whelton would agree. Whelton is the manager of Bay Street Video, a Toronto retail outlet lurking in a hidden mall behind the Tim Hortons on Bay Street near Bloor. It has weathered the physical media market for 33 years.

Defying the market norms, they still rent videos, even as they have embraced newer formats such as 4K.

“Rentals kept us going when sales were sparse and sales kept us going when rentals were sparse,” Whelton says. “We’ve been very adaptable.”

Whelton says the secret of that store’s success has been in viewing the store’s customer base as a community.

“One of the things that was really important to me when I took over well over four years ago was making sure that we felt more like a community hub where you could go and discover your next favourite movie.”

For his part, Whelton welcomes the competition at Cinema Cellar.

“I think a rising tide raises all ships,” he says, referring not just to Cinema Cellar but outlying Toronto stores such as Eyesore Cinema, on Bloor Street near Dufferin, and Vinegar Syndrome, on Roncesvalles Ave.

“The more ways that people can see movies, the better.”

randall.king.arts@gmail.com

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