Digital Projection at the Theater
Jul 9th, 2006 by Brian A. Thomas
The news out there is that the big three theater chains (AMC, Cinimark, and Regal) may raise $1 billion to convert 13,000 screens to digital projection (news). No word if that would be for the newer 4k projectors or not, one would hope.
The report says, “Theater owners plan to spend about $75,000 per screen to rip out film projectors and replace them with digital systems that promise higher-quality pictures and lower costs, and faster delivery of films over cable or satellite connections.” Let’s be clear, it isn’t a better quality picture, even at 4k. Until they can remove compression, and project motion RAW at a good resolution, you can’t beat film. However, most people probably won’t notice too much to care anyhow, so I guess that is a fairly moot point. Besides, most movies, even if filmed an film, are edited digitally, so I guess the resolution, color issues don’t actually matter anyhow. Lower cost is an important point, but unfortunately it doesn’t mean a lower cost to the theater unless the studios are willing to take smaller cuts of the ticket sales. The lease of the film print itself isn’t what makes going to the movie expensive, it is the fact that the theater doesn’t make money off ticket sales. With a studio taking 90%+ of the ticket sales for the first week or so, it is little wonder why the theater has to charge so much as the concession stand. The studios have to rethink the way they do business if the theater industry is going to survive, and the studios should subsidize the cost of the switch themselves.
What digital projection does for the theaters is give them more options of what they can show. Deals could be made with Pay Per View to allow them to show say a boxing match at the theater. ABC could make a deal with some chains to show the season premier of Lost a week early at the theaters. Digital projection gives theaters more options. It makes them easier places to rent out for doing presentations and the like, imagine somebody doing a Power Point presentation on a big screen. Game developers could develop mass player games where everyone gets a controller and helps play a game of some type.
Of course it doesn’t solve the problem of the bad points of a movie going experience, noisy kids, people talking, cell phones and the like. This is mentioned just as much as cost when people say why they don’t go to theaters. (Many people complain about the picture being out of focus, but I haven’t noticed that at the local theaters.)
The studios may blame piracy for falls sales at the theater, but the truth is the cost issue which is their fault is to blame, along with the the rather crappy experience at the theater are to blame. Piracy just gives them an invalid reason to put restrictions on fair use, since the Government isn’t smart enough to know the problem is created by the studios themselves, and the theater experience… but I am getting off topic…
Anyhow, this has the potential to be good news, we’ll see what comes of it all later.
