Welcome the classic chicken and egg technical dilemma. Movies need to go film-less, but the cost of being the early adopter is too expensive to be worth doing. Projector costs can only come down when you have volume sales, and so stands an industry waiting for someone to make the first move. Today a small chain in New York will take that plunge. More info:
"Landmark Theaters, the art-house chain controlled by Mark Cuban and Todd Wagner, will become the first chain to install a new generation of digital projectors developed by Sony, which show movies at twice the resolution of previous digital projectors.
"Landmark will buy six of the Sony projectors when they become available in July, and over the next few years will install others in all 58 of its theaters, Mr. Cuban said. Hollywood has been discussing the use of digital projectors, which show movies without using film, for the last several years, but fewer than 100 are currently used in theaters to show full-length features.
"Substantial questions remain both about the projectors' technical merits and, more important, who would pay for them. The main advantage of digital projection is the potential to save movie studios the expense of copying movies on film, which can cost more than $1,000 a print. Theater owners are waiting to see if the studios will find a way to subsidize the cost of the projectors, which can be $100,000 each when the costs of the other needed hardware and software are included." Source: NY Times Online (free subscription required)
Welcome the classic chicken and egg technical dilemma. Movies need to go film-less, but the cost of being the early adopter is too expensive to be worth doing. Projector costs can only come down when you have volume sales, and so stands an industry waiting for someone to make the first move. Today a small chain in New York