Alex Woodside has a long list of reasons for why the Toronto Underground Cinema is closing down.

Along with Nigel Agnew and Charlie Lawton, Woodside has managed the single-screen cinema near Spadina Ave. and Queen St. W. since its doors opened on May 14, 2010 (with a free double-bill of Clue and Big Trouble in Little China). In the two-plus years since it opened, the Underground distinguished itself in Toronto’s moviegoing landscape, recently crowned “Toronto’s Best Rep Cinema” by Now.

They brought in special guests like Adam West and Robert “Freddy Krueger” Englund for packed-housed screenings. They booked hip festivals like Images and After Dark, and supplemented their film programming with concerts, burlesque shows and, once, a video game-themed amateur wrestling tournament. The Underground wasn’t just a neighbourhood movie theatre. It was a space.

Next month, it’ll be an empty space.

“The long and the short of it is that there’s another group who has claim to the space,” says Woodside, remaining mum on details. “We’ve tried to come to terms with them. But it hasn’t happened.”

As a small business renting the cinema from its owner, himself subject to a condo board, the Underground is no stranger to red tape.

Things were complicated further when the cinema began pursuing a liquor license to increase what Woodside calls their “niche.” The application was met with misgivings from some condo residents, leading to a drawn-out acquisition process. “My regret is that we didn’t go after it from day one,” says Woodside. “It was never a sustainable business model without it.”

There’s also the Underground’s location within a “competitive zone,” defined by film distributors and exhibitors, which prevents it from unspooling anything screening at the nearby Scotiabank Theatre, TIFF Bell Lightbox, and Cineplex Yonge and Dundas (formerly AMC). It also needed substantial upgrades in order to keep pace with local cinemas transitioning from traditional 35mm film to digital formats. (The shift away from actual celluloid film prints makes acquiring copies of desirable movies more difficult for theatres not decked out with the newest high-definition projectors.)

Given all these complications (and expenses), Woodside and his fellow managers wanted to make sure they could honour existent booking commitments. The Toronto Indie Film Festival, which launched at the Underground in 2010, will be the last festival to use the cinema’s 700 seats, booked from Sept. 6 to 15.

“It’s like being in an abusive relationship,” says Woodside of running the theatre. “You totally love this thing and you respect it so much. But it takes everything from you.”

It’s hardly an amicable breakup, but the Underground crew knew it was a gamble going in. “We were never working with a reasonable budget to do what we were trying to do,” says Woodside. “And we just decided we were going to do it anyway.”

The Underground will screen its last double-bill Sunday, Sept. 16: fittingly programmed screenings of the cult doomsday flick Night of the Comet and The Band’s 1976 farewell concert film The Last Waltz. Both films will be projected in 35mm.