Future of Movies Is Digital, but Costs Are Proving Prohibitive

Can’t get enough of the digital revolution? Were you the first on your block to dashto a digital presentation of 20th Century Fox’s “Star Wars: Episode I The Phantom Menace” and Disney/Pixar’s “Toy Story 2,” as well as other Disney films shown as a preview of the next wave in the moviegoing experience?

This summer, you’ve got a shot at experiencing at least three films lighting up the screen via digital projection. Of course you’ll have to travel to New York to see Fox’s upcoming animated “Titan A.E.” in its exclusive North American digital run at AMC’s Empire 25 theaters beginning June 16. But Disney’s “Dinosaur” (now in release) and the re-release of “Fantasia/2000” (also June 16) will be playing digitally on numerous screens around the country, including Pacific’s El Capitan, AMC’s Media Center North 6 in Burbank and Edwards’ Spectrum in Irvine.

“People who understand digital technology are the ones coming out to see it,” says Phil Singleton, president of AMC Theaters. “We did a modest survey with audiences on previous digital runs and the numbers support the digital performances. They were just graded better.”

AMC surveyed audiences watching Disney’s “Tarzan, “Toy Story 2” and “Bicentennial Man” projected digitally at seven test locations. Disney has been the biggest proponent of the fledgling and costly exhibition technology being developed largely by Dallas-based Texas Instruments, and the studio has helped exhibitors shoulder some of the costs. The projectors currently cost $100,000 apiece--nearly 10 times the price of a film machine.

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“Audiences basically responded to how rock steady the picture played in digital versus analog [normal 35mm film projection],” notes Singleton. “They also noted how clear and crisp the picture was plus the amazing depth of field.

“The biggest difference between seeing a film shown digitally and one shown through a regular projector is that, over time, the digital version always looks the same. In Week 25 it looks and plays as it did in Week One.” Pops, scratches, skips, fading and rips, not to mention bouncing images, have a tendency to creep up in repeated showings of film reels run through projectors now used in theaters.

There are only 12 screens in North America and 18 worldwide, including five in Europe and one in Tokyo, using digital projectors. Aside from AMC and Edwards, Famous Players in Canada has a screen and Laemmle’s Sunset 5 and Pacific Theaters’ Winnetka 20 have given digital a test run with audiences.

“Everything is going digital and projected film is one of the last bastions of movies to change,” says Paul Dergarabedian, president of the box office tracking firm Exhibitor Relations. “Since digital projection is still in the experimental stage, the public isn’t really aware of it and certainly not as much as people in the business.

“You can see a difference when movies are shot in digital versus film, like ‘Toy Story 2,’ especially when they are played side by side. Film is a chemical process, not an electronic one, so there seems to be this warmth and softness to it. Digital has a crisper, sharper look,” he notes. “With digital projection, you really do notice the difference after the film has played for a while” because of the wear and tear on film..

To show films through digital projectors now, the filmed images have to be transferred to digital format. “Eventually, the idea is to have digital completely replicate analog so that the movie is shot in digital and has that same warmth and richness to it as film,” he adds. “One of the big tests will be with cinematographers and directors, since they have a tendency to really like the control they have with film. At least that’s what we keep hearing. The other big issue is the cost factor.”

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It was one of the premiere filmmakers who launched digital projection’s maiden voyage with audiences in June 1999. George Lucas’ prequel “Star Wars: Episode I the Phantom Menace” played on four digital screens, two in Los Angeles and two outside New York City. “The first two weeks we saw the audience really respond, based on the [box office] grosses,” says Tom Sherak, chairman of Fox’s Domestic Film Group. “There had been a lot of press about it being shown in digital so the public, and the techies in particular, wanted to see what it was like. But by the eighth or 10th week of the run, I don’t think you could say it really made the difference.” While Lucas shot “Episode I” in film, he is shooting most of “Episode II’s” live action sequences in digital. He remains a big proponent of the entire digital process, from sound to theater projection as well.

“ ‘Episode I’ was shot on film and transferred to digital. It’s true that when we played [‘Episode I’] in theaters side by side at first you couldn’t tell the difference,” says Jeanne Cole, spokeswoman for Lucasfilm Ltd. “But after a while you definitely could. On the one projected digitally, you didn’t see the dirt and the flickering. What you did see was incredible detail, even the small pearls on Queen Amadala’s gown.”

Lucas aside, the biggest supporter of digital projection exploration has been Disney. Its El Capital theater in Hollywood has shown numerous films digitally, including “Mission to Mars.” On its slate of upcoming pictures to be shown digitally are “102 Dalmatians” and “The Emperor’s New Clothes.”

“We love the way this looks for our films and we’ve been tinkering with the idea of digital for years,” says Bob Lambert, senior vice president of Disney’s New Technology. “It has come a long way in the past five years. Basically, the way it works is that instead of film you use computer chips that use tiny mirrors to generate the pictures on the screen. What you have is 1.3 million tiny little mirrors on each computer chip, a fraction of the size of a human hair, reflecting the image on the screen [through a system of electronic magnification]. The chips are in this computer storage device that sits beside the projector.”

Dan Fellman, head of distribution for Warner Bros., says the studio plans to get in the game next year with at least with one release but declined to name the title.

Since the process is complicated “and uses a lot of fairly sophisticated electronics, that drives up the cost,” says Doug Darrow, business manager of Texas Instruments’ DLP Cinema Products. His company developed the prototype digital projectors now being used in most current applications. Since there are 36,000 screens in North America alone, converting film projectors to digital for all of those screens would cost $3.6 billion at $100,000 each.

The bone of contention between studios and exhibitors is who will pay for it.

“It’s just too expensive right now,” says Chandler Wood, executive vice president and head film buyer for Pacific Theaters. “We were one of the four theaters first tested for digital when the ‘Star Wars’ prequel came out. A lot of people [in audiences] really could tell the difference.”

Nonetheless, “when it came time to reconsider doing it again for some of the newer releases, we passed” on installing it in more theaters, says Wood. “This may be the way of the future, but it’s not the future right now--at least not at that price.”

When Laemmle Theaters showed “An Ideal Husband” at its Sunset 5 for a test four-week run in digital, “we did notice a difference in quality over time. But it still isn’t worth the cost,” says owner Bob Laemmle.

“We know this prototype is expensive,” making it difficult for smaller theaters to make the switch to digital, notes Phil Barlow, executive vice president of Disney’s Motion Picture Group, who has championed the new technology the most. “But all prototypes are expensive. In time, it will work out. When you have quality that is the same as the answer print, the original print, playing day in and day out, that is worth the investment over time.”