Monday, January 19, 2009

Cedar Rapids Imax to Close January 20th

I'm finally getting on top of my respiratory illness to feel like blogging again. Since I made the JS news today I will gather the facts left out by Ms. McDonald and send them off as a "Letter to the Editor" and expect in fairness my letter will be printed.

In the meantime news from Cedar Rapids, Iowa announces the closing of the Science Station IMAX theatre as it was no longer financially feasible and attendance was eroding. "In December IMAX announced beginning in 2008 they will be installing their new digital technology in 100 commercial theatres. At the same time local theatres are already offering digital and 3D technology."

Shades of the RiverPlex. The museum IMAX would be in direct competition with the private sector who would be paying a sales tax to help fund their competition....

4 comments:

Jonathan Ahl said...

Don't forget that city is trying to rebuild from massive devastation from floods of historic levels. While the theatre had profitability issues dating before the flood, it didn't help.

I'm not sure if its a 100% fair comparison to Peoria's proposal.

But raising the question is always valid.

Anonymous said...

Jonathan: Trying to understand yur point of view. Imax techonology was changing at the beginning of 2008.

The IMAX closing was announced on 2 Jan 2008 for a 20 Jan 2008 closing. How was that a factor of the historic flooding which occurred later in 2008?

http://www.kcrg.com/news/local/12982567.html

Technology is constantly changing. Merle was referencing at least the appearance of public vs. private competition. Perhaps Merle was also thinking about technology and the changes which will probably occur over the next 20 years and where will the money come from to make updates? This is supposed to be a public facility.

What do you think?

Merle Widmer said...

I should have said Jan. 20th, 2008 which was months before the flood.

I wrote about Cedar Rapids because it was used as a Benchmark Comparison in the Museum Committee's sales pitch to the County Board.

Jonathan Ahl said...

My bad. I thought the announcement of the IMAX shutdown came after the flood. Oops, I was wrong.

Never mind. Nothing to see here. Return to your homes or places of business.

I should have looked more closely at this before making a comment.

Mea Culpa.