CENTER TWP — Digital projection has closed the Clearview Mall Cinemas.

The theater closed Tuesday, according to John Brautigam, the mall manager.

Brautigam said he is unsure when the theater may reopen, but the mall is seeking to find a new company to manage it.

“Our efforts are focused on finding a new operator,” he said.

The Pittsburgh Theatre Corp. began managing the theater in August.

“We did that as a favor to the landowner,” said John Harper, a representative with the group.

The theater group manages eight other locations in Western Pennsylvania, Ohio and Maryland, including Cranberry Cinemas in the Cranberry Mall in Cranberry Township.

Harper said the theater in the Clearview Mall closed because of the movie industry’s transition into digital media.

“That theater only played 35 millimeter film,” he said.

Harper estimated new projectors would cost at least $75,000 for each of the cinema’s four screens.

“That doesn’t include replacing the sound systems and everything either,” he said.

The closure is not uncommon for discount theaters, which play movies after they’ve left first-run theaters because they are unable to make the switch to digital, Harper said.

“Sub-run theaters are closing down across the country,” Harper said. “It’s all due to digital projection.”