Winnipeg's Imax theatre to shut down in March

Winnipeg's downtown Imax theatre, which has been showing movies on an extra-large screen for the past 25 years, will close for good at the end of March.

The cinema has been operating on the third floor of Portage Place since 1987, but it has been losing money in recent years, according to the Forks North Portage Partnership, which owns the venue.

"The business case no longer exists to run the theatre the way that it's been running," Clare MacKay, the partnership's vice-president of marketing, told CBC News late Monday.

"Over the last several years, our numbers are continuing to decline, and we haven't been able to secure the walk-up traffic that we would want in order to be able to continue."

Although the theatre operates under the Imax brand, it is an independently-run venue and has not been able to secure new Hollywood movies as they are being released, MacKay said.

Other cinemas in Winnipeg have 3D capabilities these days, and another Imax theatre that recently opened at Polo Park Shopping Centre has been screening new releases as soon as they come out, she said.

The Imax theatre at Portage Place will shut down on March 31.

MacKay said there will be some job losses associated with the closure, and there's no word yet on what will happen to the space.

The news disappointed fans like Travis Rowthorn, who said he loves the experience of watching a movie on the city's original Imax screen.

"I came here a lot as a child and have continued to come to this Portage Place location throughout my adulthood, so now it's just kind of become a family ritual," he said.