Cinespace Film Studios


Cinespace Film Studios is a group of film studio facilities in the US and Canada. It was founded in 1988 by Greek-Canadian Nick Mirkopoulos. The studio started with a facility in Vaughan, a suburb of Toronto, which had been in operation since the 1960s. Current studios include facilities in Toronto, a branch in Chicago founded in 2007 with Mirkopoulos's nephew, Alex Pissios, and facilities in Atlanta and Wilmington, NC acquired in 2023 from EUE/Screen Gems. In 2022, TPG Real Estate Partners acquired the Studio Babelsberg facilities in Potsdam-Babelsberg and merged them into Cinespace.

Studios

Kipling Avenue Studios

The company acquired a campus at 777 Kipling Avenue in Toronto's Etobicoke area in 2009.
At the 2017 Toronto International Film Festival, Mayor of Toronto John Tory joined with Cinespace officials to announce plans to build two very large new studios on the site, with a combined footprint of. One of the large studios will be permanently devoted to underwater filming.
Film LinksYear
Resident Evil: Retribution2012
The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones2013
Pacific Rim2013
Pompeii2014
xXx: Return of Xander Cage2017
Flatliners2017

Television Series
  • Beauty & the Beast
  • Black Mirror
  • Condor
  • Conviction
  • Falling Water
  • Good Witch
  • Reign
  • Taken
  • The Handmaid's Tale
  • The Umbrella Academy
  • Titans
  • ''Locke & Key''

    Kleinburg

Toronto International Studios is a film studio that was established in Kleinburg, Ontario in the 1950s. Its geo-coordinates are.
Cinespace moved out of the studios and upgraded to the Vaughan Sports Center in 2015, a baseball training complex.
Film linksYear
The Hired Gun1957
The Fox1967
The First Time1969
The Reincarnate1971
Mahoney's Estate1972
Recommendation for Mercy1975
Death Weekend1976
Silver Streak1976
Equus1977
Rituals1977
Welcome to Blood City1977
Riel1979
H. G. Wells' The Shape of Things to Come1979
Fish Hawk1980
Virus1980
The Amateur1981
Class of 19841982
The Wars1983
Strange Brew1983
Sesame Street Presents Follow That Bird1985
The Fly1986
Love at Stake1987
Divided Loyalties1990
The Good Son1993
To Die For1995
Murder at 16001997
Dick1999
Thomas and the Magic Railroad2000
The Sentinel2006
Casino Jack2010

TV movie linksYear
The Day Reagan Was Shot2001
The Brady Bunch in the White House2002

TV linksYear
Hudson's Bay1959
The Forest Rangers1963–1966
Hatch's Mill1967
The Adventures of Timothy Pilgrim1975
The Littlest Hobo1979-1985
You Can't Do That on Television1979-1990
Matt and Jenny1979-1980
Fraggle Rock1983-1987
Shining Time Station1991-1996
The Doodlebops2005-2007
The Big Comfy Couch2006

Chicago

Cinespace Chicago Film Studios opened for business in 2011 and Alex Pissios, the president and CEO of the company, worked with his uncle, Nick Mirkopoulos, to establish the Studios in Chicago. Mirkopoulos and Pissios purchased 60 acres of the former Ryerson Steel complex in the Windy City's North Lawndale neighborhood. The Studios are the largest independent movie studios outside of Los Angeles.
The studios have continued to expand and now have 36 sound stages. Pissios and Cinespace Chicago Film Studios were featured in the December 2019 Chicago Magazine and highlighted the success and influence the studio has had on the film industry in Chicago. Cinespace Chicago Film Studios, is the “Hollywood of the Midwest,” bringing more than 15,000 jobs in digital media and education opportunities to the community and region by revitalizing a depressed neighborhood. Cinespace Chicago has been instrumental in infusing billions of dollars of revenue into the city and the state of Illinois.
Its campus has been the nexus for over 40 major productions used to film multiple television series and feature films, including:
  • Chicago Med
  • Chicago Fire
  • Chicago PD
  • Chicago Justice
  • Empire
  • Shameless
  • Utopia
  • Next
  • Mixtape
  • Jack's Big Music Show
  • The Chi
  • Fargo
  • The Exorcist
  • Sense8
  • Patriot
  • APB
  • Proven Innocent
  • Night Sky
  • Zoobiquity
Film LinksYearNotes
Transformers: Dark of the Moon2011
Divergent2014
Captive State2017
Rampage2017
Widows2018
Proud Mary2018

Thstudioio is planned to have 36 sound stages on its 2 million square foot main campus in Chicago's North Lawndale neighborhoods. Additional studios have been under construction at 31st and Kedzie. In addition to studio space, Cinespace Chicago Film Studios houses numerous production offices and support spaces as well as production tenants.
Cinespace partnered with DePaul University's film school in 2013 to house student classrooms, two interactive stages, faculty offices, lounges, and equipment vaults. Ranked in the top 25 film schools nationwide, DePaul University's School of Cinematic Arts program teaches aspiring producers and creatives about all aspects of television and film production.
Since its inception, Cinespace has brought in more than $3 billion in film-related spending to Chicago.