Magic Lantern Elite Theatre, St. Paul, AB

Unlike the older "dollar cinemas" — usually first-run cinemas that dropped the prices because they were old, or run down, or badly located — these were new-built multiplex theatres that showed movies, after their first run, and charged very low prices. They depended on volume of attendance to make money. Magic Lantern decided to build a Discount Cinema, after studying the success of this new idea. Saskatoon was chosen, and the name... well, why not use the one from Great Falls? Rainbow Cinema was born. A couple years later, a sister theatre was built in Regina, so there were two Rainbows in Saskatchewan. Further expansion of this concept was stymied, however, because the cost of land and taxes was too high in cities where Rainbow discount theatres could have been successful. The year 2000 was a tough year for the film exhibition industry in North America. Most movies that year were not big moneymakers. Also, many major movie exhibitors went bankrupt or struggled with big losses because they had overbuilt the expensive, stadium-type-seating gigaplexes. These were usually located on the peripheral areas of the cities. In Canada, many landlords found themselves with empty theatre structures, after being abandoned by the major exhibitors. The landlords began approaching smaller companies, such as Magic Lantern, to re-open these theatres. This situation allowed Magic Lantern to venture into Ontario.
Once, on a trip through Montana, the owners stopped at Great Falls. They noticed the facades of what had been big, important theatres on Main Street. One of them was named the Rainbow Theatre (after the rainbow effect at the Falls). The comment was made: "That is a real good name for a theatre....must remember it". In the early 1990s, a new type of cinema was springing up in the United States. The Discount, or Dollar Theatre.