Here’s how Weyburn is working to reclaim its movie theatre

The city of Weyburn has been without a theatre since 2018. Wayne Mantyka has more on how the community is building a brand new one.

A new movie theatre is rising in Weyburn on the site of the old. It’s a community fixture – and one that residents have sorely missed.

“The community’s youth really felt like they were missing out on the experience and they started the initiative to push this to get it done so since then we formed the cooperative,” Ryan Janke of the Weyburn Theatre Community Service Cooperative told CTV News.

“We felt the cooperative model was the perfect way to do this for a community our size.”

The previous Soo Theatre closed in 2018 and the building was demolished.

• Download the CTV News app to get breaking news alerts sent to your device

Weyburn formed a cooperative to raise the funds needed for a community operated replacement. It will feature two screens to accommodate 80 patrons on each side.

“Naturally the big challenges we’ve had is that as we’ve been working on this inflation has been affecting us that same as everybody else,” Janke explained.

“The costs rise as we chase those goalposts.”

Over half the $3 million fundraising goal has already been achieved through community and service club donations. The Weyburn Young Fellows have committed a quarter of a million dollars.

“We felt that the lack of a movie theatre was very impacting for our youth and our local economy,” Ryan Bader of the Weyburn Young Fellows Club noted.

“Not having that draw, not having that ability to attract professionals to come and work in the community, because there’s no movie theatre for their kids to go to.”

The community hopes it can keep the final cost at $4.8 million.

The fundraising goal will remain at $3 million – anything above that will be financed through a loan.