Albert Leans will no longer have to drive to neighboring cities to experience three-dimensional movies, because, as of Friday, Mall Cinema 7 Theater at Northbridge Mall in Albert Lea can now show them.

“We’re doing it for the customers because movie studios are making more 3D movies,” manager Trevor Kerns said.

On Friday the movie “Shrek Forever After” played in 3D and will stay at Cinema 7 for four weeks in 3D until “Toy Story 3” comes out in 3D on June 18. The theater also has “Shrek Forever After” in 2D, or regular viewing. Kerns said they hope to always offer the movie in 2D and 3D, but there may be some exceptions.

“Some people would rather watch it in 2D, so we’ll try to do both,” Kerns said.

It costs movie studios more to make 3D movies and the theater in Albert Lea has an extra charge of $2.25 for 3D movie tickets. A general admission ticket for an adult is $7.75, which would make a 3D movie ticket $10. Children and senior tickets are $5.75, which would make a 3D movie ticket $8 for them.

People watching 3D movies in Albert Lea will be lent 3D glasses that they will have to return after the movie so the theater can sanitize them and use them again. The glasses are made to work with the projector, which is a Dolby Digital with 3D capabilities. It’s a digital projector, so instead of a movie studio shipping large reels of 35mm film it just ships a hard drive version of the movie. Mason City, Iowa, and Lakeville are the closest theaters that have Dolby Digital 3D.

The other kind of 3D projector is RealD. Two theaters in Mankato and one in Rochester have this kind of 3D. The glasses they provide to watch RealD are disposable, unlike Cinema 7’s Dolby Digital glasses.

Kerns hopes to someday have only digital projectors because they have better picture quality. Right now the theater has one digital projector, which can also play 3D movies, and six film projectors.

Domnic and Kyra Madrigal went to the premiere of the new 3D movie on Friday. They said they have seen all the other “Shrek” movies.