According to various sources, I read it initially in the Guardian, the National Association of Theatre Owners in America has:
…passed a resolution that would require studios to unite on a single financial plan for the rollout of digital cinema in the US.
It sounds like good news, in that the financial costs are quite large and if Studios are going to start delivering their movies in a digital format then it would help all Theatre owners if there was some way of dealing with these costs.
As mentioned before in a previous article about Digital Cinema, in Scotland an external organisation has been created to help with these costs, run trials and assist Cinemas in their implementation.
This spells good news for American Cinemas where the larger ones would cope well with the costs, although it would hit them for the larger number of Cinemas they own, but it would seriously hit hard for the smaller Cinemas. You know, those local ones that bring you the cool foreign films and non-mainstream movies.
Apparently this was posted on the Friday past and only one Studio has returned a possible objection in that the partnership may raise anti-trust laws, although if it was for the benefit of all Theatre’s I can’t see why this is an issue.
This needs to be pushed along, and the rollout needs to happen soon. We’re all watching digital quality at home nowadays and many (like me) have quality at home which is superior to the overall Cinema experience. They need to be ahead of the home market to stay in serious competition, and right now I think Cinemas are beginning to fall behind.
