Movie theaters going digital

New projectors mark biggest technological change in equipment, eliminating industry's familiar reel symbol

Web posted March 12, 1999

Associated Press

LAS VEGAS -- Hollywood is on the brink of the biggest technological change since sound and color: digital projectors that will allow movie theaters to do away with equipment that has changed little since Thomas Edison's day.

The new technology will also eliminate some of the most familiar of symbols of the movie industry -- celluloid and the film reel.

Leading the revolution is director George Lucas, whose eagerly anticipated Star Wars prequel, Star Wars: Episode I -- The Phantom Menace, will be shown in May in four digitally equipped theaters.

In two to five years, increasing numbers of movie houses could go digital as exhibitors work out the technical and business problems.

``I'm very dedicated and very enthusiastic about the digital cinema,'' Mr. Lucas told thousands of theater operators at the ShoWest industry convention Wednesday. He cited the ``quality, the savings in cost and the ability to do things that just aren't possible today.''

In digital cinema, the movies are shot on film and then converted to a digital format. Eventually, shooting may also be done on digital cameras.

The completed movies are then distributed from studios to theaters by satellite, by fiber-optic cable or on special discs.

The movies are then shown on a digital projector. One such projector, developed by Texas Instruments, creates a screen image by bouncing light off 1.3 million microscopic mirrors squeezed onto a 1-square-inch chip.

That represents a big advance over the standard film projector, whose basic technology has barely changed since Edison's Kinetoscope in 1891. The Kinetoscope used George Eastman's celluloid film on 35 mm stock -- just like today's projectors.

The technology also represents an advance in movie distribution. Currently, studios distribute movies by making prints and shipping them to theaters all over the country in huge, heavy reels.

As for audiences, they will see a cleaner, sharper image that won't show wear and tear with repeated showings. That means no scratches or declining color quality late in a movie's run.

During a demonstration at ShoWest, with film and digital scenes projected side-by-side on a big screen, the only problem with digital appeared to be color, with whites taking on a yellow hue, blues becoming purplish, and skin tones giving actresses a manequin-like complexion.

Digital technology allows theaters more flexibility in show times and the number of screens showing a particular movie, since theaters aren't limited by a finite number of film prints.

One thing nobody is saying is what digital movies will do to ticket prices, which last year averaged $4.70 in the United States. A digital projector runs about $100,000, compared with about $30,000 for a standard one.

``I was very impressed with the quality. It's almost to the point where it's ready,'' said Mike Goakey, director of construction for Signature Theaters, with 145 screens in California and Hawaii. ``I think the big issue is going to be the money end of it.''

But Mr. Goakey, like many at ShoWest, predicted theaters could be going digital within five years.

Actually, there are great savings from digital. But they go to the movie studios, which won't have to pay the enormous costs of making prints and shipping them.

For digital movie theaters to succeed, exhibitors say the studios must pitch in.

``The issues are: When will it come and who pays for it?'' said Peter Ivany, chief executive of Hoyts Cinemas Limited, with theaters in the United States and Australia.

Another concern is that beaming multimillion-dollar films via satellite will invite movie piracy. The digital companies insist there are encryption programs that will adequately scramble the signal.

Robert Mayson of Eastman Kodak -- which would be the big loser in digital theaters since it is Kodak film that the world's movie projectors run -- warned that one supposedly unbreakable code has already been broken.