July 8, 1954 the Stanley began showing films in stereophonic CinemaScope for the first time. By December 1958, the theatre had a DP70 70mm projector, and the Stanley was advertised as "the only Todd-AO theatre in Western Canada". By October 1978, the auditorium was equipped with Dolby Stereo, and by December 1985 its sound system was upgraded and certified to THX quality assurance standards. The Stanley often showed blockbusters. Some movies shown at the theatre through the years included The Exorcist, The Towering Inferno, The Muppet Movie, Apocalypse Now, The Empire Strikes Back, The Elephant Man, Poltergeist, The Right Stuff, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, Top Gun, Empire of the Sun, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, and Goodfellas. Revenues declined during the late 20th century, and Famous Players closed the Stanley, which was by then the oldest operating movie theatre in Vancouver, on September 25, 1991 after a final showing of the Stanley regular Fantasia; the theatre had previously shown Fantasia at least four times, in 1977, 1979, 1980–1981, and 1990. Its closure was part of a long trend: The number of Famous Players theatres had dropped from 419 in 1954 to 196 in 1969, and would fall to eighty, some in partnership with other companies, by the time it was taken over by Cineplex Galaxy Entertainment in 2005. Other Vancouver-area Famous Players movie theatres closed, sold or torn down in this period included the Fine Arts (1989), Denman Place (1989), Park Royal (1993), the Park (2005), and the Capitol 6 (2005). Renovation Famous Players put the Stanley up for sale in the spring of 1991, with the condition that it not be used as a movie theatre. In the months leading up to the Stanley's closure, Famous Players had a conditional sale agreement for the theatre with Vancouver developer Sandy Cox, who was planning to keep the Stanley's facade and convert the interior into retail space. The Vancouver City Council received a proposal to change the building to retail use, which it approved, but the planned development was abandoned, and the building remained vacant for several years. During the early 1990s, a "Save Our Stanley" campaign was begun to preserve the building and prevent commercial redevelopment of the space. In 1994, the Stanley Theatre Society was formed to try to buy the Stanley for the Arts Club Theatre Company, and in 1997 it purchased the theatre