Metropolitan Entertainment Centre
281 Donald Street,
Winnipeg,
MB
R3C 5S4
281 Donald Street,
Winnipeg,
MB
R3C 5S4
10 people
favorited this theater
Showing 126 - 150 of 179 comments
The likelihood of the Met reopening as a single screen theatre is very remote indeed. Economically a single screen theatre just can’t cut it. Bear in mind that the theatre has been closed for 20 years, has been allowed to deteriorate badly and will cost millions to restore, which is why there hasn’t been anyone coming forward with any proposals. Another problem is that it is ‘landlocked’, meaning that the stage house could not be enlarged. It is bounded by the public laneway to the north and by Holy Trinity church property to the south which is already designated as an historic site. Typical of some theatres of the time, by today’s standards the stage house
is small and would limit the type of offerings presented. At the same time it would have to compete with a multiplex as well as the Imax theatre only two blocks away in Portage Place mall. According to some sources those venues aren’t living up to expectations. Worth mentioning is the ever present problem of
downtown parking which would be a nightmare on a night that events are taking place at the MTS Centre immediately across the street from the theatre.
It would not surprise me at all to see the proposal to convert the Met into a rock ‘n’ roll museum get the nod from the city, although to date no one has said who would underwrite that project should it be approved.
thanks for the heads up grand cameo. if they did reopen as a movie theatre, maybe the city could do some kinds of promotions, include it in some types of entertainment packages. along those lines. i wonder if the newspapers could do a poll of the public asking if they’d like to see it reopened, and percentage of people who’d go? was attendance really that low near the end?
grandcameo: An interesting reality check, thanks for the info..
It is great to see some facts regarding the business aspect of operating a theatre. Sometimes the dream can lack such details, which evidently has lead to the demise of some small businesses.
Judging by the box office reports is appears that the movie industry is hurting a little.. I wonder if any of this can be attributed to the increasing use of “home theatres” and dvd downloading?
Or is it just lack of interest due to poor movie quality?
garro: The average “window” for a film’s release to DVD after first run is shrinking… Not surprising is that a lot of second run theatres are actually doing quite poorly. Now, the real profit comes from the concessions alone, as the theatres pay a large percentage of their ticket price directly to the studio.
A discount house makes about 70% of a $2.00 ticket, so that would be 1.75 ($2 less taxes) x .70 = $1.22, which is not a lot at all.
According to bigscreenbiz.com, a first run theatre pays atleast 70% to the studio, leaving up to 30% for gross before it pays all of its other bills…
i can agree with bd, in the name of survival, especially as time passes. but don’t we all wish it could reopen as a real movie theatre again? we can’t forget what it was like-being inside it was like being inside a palace, it was so plush and opulent.
Thanks for the info Sam,
I agree with garro; it would be great to see a more accurate restoration but as time passes by the future of the Met is slowly fading. At this point if the building were required to undergo some modifications in exchange for a second chance at existence I would support the effort. In the name of survival.
The Met was used to film the command centre scenes in Category 7: The End of the World, with shots taken of the exterior and from inside that cool mezannine. It’s almost worth watching that crappy movie to see it.
nice to hear some news, thanks sam. would be great to see it reopen as a theatre, but that might be too much of a dream. at least it’ll be in the general category of entertainment. i hope they’ll try to keep as much intact as possible, i’m sure we all rememeber how beautiful it was!—remember the old theatres on main st.? i think there’s three left, sitting vacant. wonder if anything will be done with them? and the garrick, beleive it’s being used as a cinference center? that was a great movie house, also.-garro
As of this week the mayor has asked Hartley Richardson to conduct a feasability study to renovate and reopen the ‘Met’ as a Canadian rock ‘n’ roll museum, restaurant and entertainment venue. This was probably prompted by the proposal put forward by Burton Cummings, former lead musician of the Guess Who rock group, as being the salvation of the long shuttered theatre. I suppose we’ll have to adopt a ‘wait and see’ attitude until the results of that study are, hopefully, made public.
i lived in winnipeg many years ago in the sixties, and went to the movies every saturday. now living in montreal, i have fond memories of wpg’s movie palaces, especially the met, it was huge and beautiful inside. payed a visit to the city last summer, after many many years. it’s a sad thing to see the met just sitting there, boarded up. has there been any movement, as of now, of anything being done? one thing i could suggest, is to reopen it, and show movies that are a few months old, without being “repertory”, at a discounted rate. that could bring in patrons. sad about the other theatres also. would love to hear back, wpg people!-garro
>Winnigirl, It is a great forum, thanks to a larger 3rd party “cinematresures.org” for setting it up!
I’m here too waiting for some news from the others, hopefully they haven’t forgotten!
Like this site, that’s what our theatres need, a private financial investment. As Sam_e explains we can barely keep The Pantageous and Walker alive alone!
In the past years it has become evident that relying on the civic or provincial government to fund and support these great heritage buildings is simply asking too much. Recently I had the opportunity to meet with a property developer who had purchased 2 large buildings on princess in the exchange. Needless to say once you have a private investor what seems impossible (Capitol’s /Met’s ruins) can be reduced to a small obstacle for a large team of professionals who have a plan. I admire these individules for their preservation efforts here in our city, these are the people who get out there and “keep the ball rolling”.
The problem with the Met is finding that viable plan, one that is profitable and sustainable. The buildings on Princess are being converted to Lofts; they only have a few units left to sell hence its great success.
It’s really intriguing to learn about the history of our theatres and I thank the contributors here for providing this information!
Now does anyone here feel like brainstorming on potential ideas & uses for the Met?
What’s your take on the UofW building another theatre for performing arts instead of retrofitting one of the exsisting theatres in the city?
Is anyone here affiliated with the PARK theatre project?
What’s the news on FotM? People still looking into it? I’m very interested in helping out in whatever way I can, just found this site tonight and am amazed at the amount of information here. I work at Academy Uptown, formerly the Uptown theatre, and wish it had been better preserved. Winnipeg has so much beautiful historical architecture.
I was re-reading this post, and sam_e mentioned “It somehow managed to avoid being divided”.
I wonder why they chose to split only the Captiol, and why the Capitol?
In my opinion, the Capitol was a much nicer theatre, even in that horrible conditon you can see in my pictures, because it was just the 70s renovations (i.e. lowered ceilings) that came apart anyways.
But, my vertical files indicate that the reason the Capitol closed was due to the closure of the Amy Steam Heating plant. They also indicate the Met had the same heating system, so I don’t know how the Met survived the same freeze/thaw cycle that the Capitol did.
Just thought I should update this: Looks like Burton Cummings and David Wolinski (with the help of their good friend Mayor Sam Katz) are being considered for their proposal to turn the Met into a Canadian Music RockNRoll Museum.
Barf.
bd, if you scroll up a few entries back, you’ll see a link to ‘Virtual Heritage Winnipeg’. On that site there is a 360 degree photo tour of the Met. It is in sad shape to say the least, but not a total ruin….yet!….or at least it wasn’t on the date when the photos were taken. Closer inspection might reveal many more deficiencies. It’s difficult to say just looking at the pics. One thing is certain, it needs a lot of TLC. All the original detail has been painted over. Much of the ornamental plasterwork needs restoration. All the draperies and furnishings are gone. Obviously Famous Players or whoever stripped the place of all usable film equipment. In other words it’s going to take a lot of money to bring it back to the way it was, or something approaching it. Assuming that money can be found, then comes the problem of making it a viable operation once again. The city already operates two theatres, the Walker aka Burton Cummings and the Pantages Playhouse. The Pantages seems to be the more successful of the two currently and doesn’t have many ‘dark’ nights. The Walker, on the other hand, is inoperative much of the time and is still searching for money to complete the restoration efforts that were begun in 1991.
I’d like to contact the people who have taken over the Park theatre. It deserves a listing on Cinema Treasures too, but currently there is insufficient information about its past history and future plan to list it yet.
Hello “friends of the Met” Can’t say how happy I am to see you all here. I was in “Friends of the Met” as well. Wasn’t sure I would have the opportunity to meet others who have such a wealth of information so I did some digging at the archives etc, and to be honest nothing was as vivid as the descriptions and information here.
About 2 years ago I contacted Centre Venture and spoke to some people regarding access for a photo documentation of the Met. They were surprisingly accommodating and directed me to the appropriate personnel at City Hall. I think I still have the contact information handy somewhere. I spoke to the buildings operations person who was also quite polite and was willing to grant access for the project but explained that they could not do so because their had been some mould problems in the theatre and that it was a liability to the City.
Last time I was in with FOTM I noticed they DID take the necessary measures to prevent moulding conditions and building freeze syndrome. The furnaces WERE working and seemed to be effective. I still don’t see why the air exchanger can’t be used; I’m assuming it’s a cost thing.
I agree with Grandcameo Let’s spread the word, Look at the Park cinema on Osborne! It CAN happen!
Granted the Walker is definitely a gem I think the Met deserves some attention.
I’d be happy to hear from any of you.
CentreVenture is the city’s armlength downtown revitalize agency. They manage the site with current maintenance, structural improvements (they put the new roof on), etc.
They would be the first people to contact to see whether a new group is worth persuing (or can gain access). If they just want the building to rot away and they don’t want all that free labour fixing it up, then that’ll be fine.
The virtual heritage site is great (in fact I spent a lot of time scrolling through it…easy to get side tracked), but I couldn’t get it to download the 360 either. Certainly the view of the Met auditorium is a vintage one.
What function is CentreVenture supposed to serve anyway, or is it one of those bodies that lives in name only, doing little else?
This is getting pretty nitty gritty when it comes to the Met.
Still haven’t heard anything from CentreVenture.
Verification? Who did the verifying? And you said it babysitting. Because a projectionits was a Union projectionist did not add to his skill level, in fact it hurt the level of skill in some.
One sure thing though: An operator present sure beats the hell out of one man babysitting 8-14 projector/platter systems himself. And, it would have been the times of the union projectionist, thus bumping the skill level through apprenticeships and book training, plus verification.
An operator in the booth didnt always mean a better presentation, just like any other job different people function at different levels. What it did mean however was that when there was a problem the problem was corrected quicker.The other advantage of reel to reel if the operator threaded incorrectly and the film were to be damaged it would be a 20 minute reel rather then the entire movie. Today 1 threading error and the entire movie is damaged.
Yah, as a single that only lasted up to ‘87, I suspected a platter system was never installed. That’s good though! That would have meant that an operator was there consistantly to monitor the film and projectors, which would have equalled a better presentation.
Here’s a really cool website. I haven’t been able to see the 360 degree views yet as i have really bad dial-up and no QuickTime Player. Check it out: View link
There was no automation system in the booth it was reel to reel
“The Metropolitan Theatre Foundation”
If anybody is interested in joining a group to restore Winnipeg’s Metropolitan Theatre, send an e-mail to with:
Your name
A phone number (optional)
If the numbers prove it to be favourable, we plan to show CentreVenture, the city’s arm-length downtown revival committee, that there’s still a strong interest to bring the Met back up to its original condition.
Please, spread the word. Let’s nurse it back to health to ensure we do not lose our last ‘reel’ picture palace!