Astro Theatre

The Astro Hill Complex. home to a hotel, convenience store,
restaurant, bar, conference centre, and movie theatre. Tallest building in the city.
(source)

Main doors. Turn left to go to the movie theatre.
Frobisher Inn

Inside the Astro Complex, just down the hall from reception at the Frobisher Inn, is a not quite hidden gem.  The "Astro Theatre" is a surprising taste of home.  It actually shows first run movies!  That's right, if its currently playing in the theatre in Toronto or New York, its playing up here!  Well, more or less.  With only 2 screens, not every movie makes it up here, and those that do are only here for a short time (like, a week). So if you want to see something, you need to see it fast. The schedule only comes out a day or two ahead of time, so you don't get much time to plan. (JJ and I saw Atomic Blonde playing only a few weeks after it came out in Thunder Bay!) Bonus: they also show local movies or independent films having to do with the north.  

You buy your tickets at the window just inside the door to the right.
(photos from astrotheatre.ca)

The rest of the photos are from the website, but I had to take
this one.  The theatre tickets are just too cool.

The tickets are those old-school tear away tickets that you generally only see nowadays used for 50/50 fundraisers at kids' sporting events and bingo halls.  Also, the napkins?  You just rip your own off a giant roll of brown paper towel.  Its awesome!

If you look carefully you can see the paper towel roll on the counter
to the right.  Awesome, right?

The concession stand sells drinks, candy, popcorn, hot dogs, nachos, poutine, and slushies.  Its cash only, but there's an ATM just outside in the hall, run by NunaCASH.  (I laughed out loud when I saw that.  Get it?  Nunavut? NunaCASH?  This place cracks me up.)

Like I said before, there are only 2 screens.  One theatre seats 115 people, the other only 60. Apparently they have 3D capability, but I haven't seen a 3D movie here yet.  The theatres are small and intimate, with great sound.  They show matinees on Sundays that are popular with parents and kids, especially when its rainy or cold. 

I'm super pumped! This means I'll get to see the new Star Wars movie while we're up here.  See The Last Jedi I will, even if it means camping in the hotel hallway outside the theatre for hours to make sure I get in. (That first part of the previous sentence is said in my Yoda voice, in case you didn't catch it.)

We don't have a babysitter up here, and our darling Coraline insists she would feel terribly uncomfortable being left with a "stranger".  JJ and I are not about to stay home every evening.  That leaves us with one alternative: bring the kids with us!  So that's exactly what we did last week.  JJ was invited through work to watch a movie about delivering medical care in developing countries. (The movie was called Bending the Arc.)  Our darling children were thrilled about accompanying us on a "date night", until they realized they would be watching a documentary about tuberculosis, AIDS, and ebola care in impoverished countries.  

I thought we'd be seeing "Thor: Ragnarok".

"What exactly IS tuberculosis?"

Anything is better with poutine.

Packed house.

The kids drowned their disappointment in sugary drinks and popcorn, and in the end handled themselves quite well.  I'm not so sure they'll be keen to join us on our next date night! (Don't worry, we'll take the kids to see Justice League or some other "fun" movie soon.)

Up next: the adventure continues with the Iqaluit Humane Society.