Toronto Metropolitan University (TMU) students file with sullen faces through movie theatre doors next to a framed poster of the latest blockbuster hit. They clutch tote bags and laptops instead of tickets and popcorn because they aren't catching a flick but, instead, a lecture.

Most current TMU students and alumni are familiar with this unconventional arrangement, but many theatregoers may have no idea that their Saturday night date spot doubles as an educational venue during off-hours.

Likewise, confused first-year students will often take to the internet, seeking answers as to why they were instructed to attend classes in a movie theatre.

TMU hosts lectures in two different downtown theatres, most notably, the Cineplex Cinemas Yonge-Dundas multiplex at 10 Dundas East.

The university's presence in the complex can be traced back to a late 1990s deal that very much shaped the identity of the Yonge-Dundas intersection as Canada's answer to Times Square.

That deal saw the educational institution, then known as Ryerson University, allow theatre operator AMC Canada to build a multiplex in the planned 10 Dundas complex (now known as The Tenor) above a parking garage owned by the institution with the mutually beneficial provision that theatres double as lecture halls during off-hours.

This "air rights" deal granted a 20-year term for the university to use a dozen of the multiplex's 24 cinemas on weekday mornings from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. and four of the theatres on weekday afternoons from 1 p.m. to 6 p.m.

This practical arrangement required a bit of innovation to execute. Writing desks were specially designed for the theatre/lecture halls, which attach to seat cupholders during classes.

The deal also marked a fundamental shift towards the downtown-centric identity the university is known for today, trading off parking for new dual-purpose lecture hall space and embracing its campus' transit connectivity.

I’m at #TMU to participate in a panel discussion and the lecture hall is in a movie theatre which is showing Napoleon and is this the coolest use of a theatre by day, or what?! Might stay to see the movie after 😏 #AlternativeUse pic.twitter.com/WPVWMUr9NG

— Beth Levy (@Beth_Levy66) November 22, 2023

AMC's Canadian operations would be sold off in 2012, and the short-lived AMC branding vanished after Cineplex scooped up the Yonge-Dundas theatre and three other AMC locations in the country. 

Despite a change in ownership for the theatres and a change in name for the university, the deal remains in place between Cineplex and TMU.

The theatres at Yonge and Dundas weren't the first to host university classes for the institution, nor would they be the last.

Ryerson first hosted classes in movie theatres in 2003 at the Carlton Cinema back when the theatre was operated by Cineplex Odeon — a practice it resumed as TMU in 2023 with the theatre's latest owners, Imagine Cinemas.

The new partnership between Imagine Cinemas and TMU opened up an additional nine lecture hall spaces for university lecterns, building on an over two-decade period of collaboration between the university and local theatre operators.

As part of this collaboration, TMU's Facilities Management and Development team helped to prepare each theatre with the addition of teaching podiums with audio-visual system controls used by university instructors.

Cinema staff even work side-by-side with the university's Media Services to assist with on-site technical issues.

Ryerson, and later, TMU, has been on a building spree in the decade and a half since the Yonge-Dundas deal.

The flexibility of theatre space as lecture halls has arguably allowed the institution to invest heavily in other improvements for students rather than building out the constrained urban campus with space-consuming lecture halls.