The first day of ShoWest has historically been held as an international day where exhibitors from around the world can attend panels that cover issues and topics that relate directly to their markets. In an attempt to bring attendees in a day earlier this year, ShoWest did away with “International Day” and instead jumped right into the convention with a lunchtime keynote address from Jim Gianopoulos, Chairman of Fox Filmed Entertainment followed by a panel discussion on current trends in the exhibition industry.
Sitting on the panel, entitled “How To Stay Ahead of the Curve as the Industry Confronts Its Future”, was Rory Bruer, President of Worldwide Distribution at Sony Pictures, Andrew Cripps, President of Paramount Pictures International, Dan Harkins, CEO of Harkins Theatres, Paul Heth, President and General Director of Rising Star Media, Lee Roy Mitchell, the Chairman of Cinemark and Tim Richards, CEO and President of Vue Entertainment. Jeffrey Katzenberg, Chairman of Dreamworks Animation, decided to join in on the panel after addressing those gathered to thank them for the huge opening of his studio’s 3D feature “Monsters vs. Aliens”. Though many of these guests are panel regulars at such conferences, the mixture of exhibitors and distributors at such discussions usually makes for a an interesting hour. Monday’s panel, moderated by Hollywood Reporter editor Elizabeth Guider, was no exception.
The first topic that Guider brought up was, not surprisingly, the increase in box office grosses. Read More »
Popularity: 31% [?]
DTS Digital Cinema has been going through a bumpy ride in the past year, but appears to be seeing a light at the end of the tunnel. One year ago DTS Inc. spun off its two non-licence division. DTS Digital Images reverted to being Lowry Digital under the new ownership of Reliance/Adlabs. DTS Digital Cinema had a question mark over it until it was eventually acquired by the United Kingdom’s Beaufort International Group. Almost immediately the company closed down its server manufacturing arm and people in the industry started speculating - as we are prone to do - whether the company would survive. [Full disclosure: the co-editor of Celluloid Junkie, J. Sperling Reich works for DTS DC, but we take care not to mix paying day jobs with non-paying blogging, so he kept a stoic silence about how the company was doing any time we talked.]
DTS Digital Cinema has now staged something of a small comeback through a smart deal with Real Image Media Technologies, the Indian makers of the Qube server. Here are the key bits from the press release:
DTS Digital Cinema and Qube Cinema have announced a co-branding strategic alliance to develop and market numerous digital cinema products including a digital cinema server, a theatre management system, an enhanced digital cinema mastering solution and other allied products. The alliance will bring together the best of both companies’ strengths to form a strong commercial and technology presence in the digital cinema marketplace. Qube will bring to the relationship, their experience of having developed cutting edge digital cinema products such as the Qube XP-D digital cinema server, QubeMaster Pro encoding suite and the QubeCast media delivery system. Besides providing sales and marketing presence and expertise in many regions around the world, DTS Digital Cinema will lend the partnership experience in developing motion picture technology, such as 5.1 digital surround sound, as well as the content management software knowledge that helped develop their Theatre Management System, Satellite Delivery System and Digital Booking System. Together the two companies will develop numerous digital cinema products, starting with the DTS Digital Cinema DC-20 powered by Qube, a digital cinema server that meets DCI specifications and will be on display at ShoWest 2009. Read More »
Popularity: 34% [?]
On the eve of ShoWest, the largest trade show for the motion picture exhibition and distribution industry, AMC Entertainment is set to announce that it will install Sony’s 4K digital projectors on all of their screens. According to Variety and the New York Times, the world’s second largest cinema chain will begin installing the equipment in the second quarter of 2009 and complete the rollout by 2012. Presently AMC has 4,628 screens across 309 theatres.
The circuit is no stranger to Sony’s projectors having already installed 150 units to date.
The announcement comes on the heels of last Thursday’s news that AMC chose RealD as the 3D technology provider for 1,500 of its screens. The cinema chain already has 29 screens capable of showing 3D films. Together the two announcements are the culmination of the agreement made public in February that Sony and RealD would team up to merge the two companies’ technologies into a combined 3D product offering.
Besides being the kind of news the industry was hoping to hear at ShoWest, given the stalled digital cinema rollout, this is a huge win for Sony. As the Times points out, there has been little competition for Texas Instruments, which as installed it’s DLP projection technology on nearly 5,500 screens. Read More »
Popularity: 45% [?]
Unless you’ve been living on another planet, or simply working in an industry other than exhibition, it would be hard not to know what GDC Technology has been up to lately. After all, they’re not shy about telling you all their latest deals, most recent installations and newly released product features. The digital cinema server manufacturer has published seven press releases this last week alone. Just in case you’ve been too busy planning for ShoWest to pay attention, let’s do a quick review of GDC’s announcements from the past nine days.
Though the Singapore based company has been making digital cinema servers for more than 10 years and has the largest install base after Doremi, GDC has historically found it difficult to gain traction in North America. It seems that is changing for the better. On Thursday, GDC announced a deal with Sonic Equipment Company, a Kansas-based cinema equipment vendor, to resell and support the company’s digital cinema server. Sonic has been in business more than three decades and provides support for 400 screens in 8 states. A majority of Sonic’s clients are independent theatre owners and most, if not all, are in the Midwest. The company has made a name for itself by focusing on digital cinema integration for smaller chains and not only providing equipment sales, but also helping out with maintenance and even financing.
Sonic is certainly living up to its reputation of being an aggressive dealer when it comes to digital cinema, as immediately upon closing their deal they sold the first GDC servers to ever be installed in the United States. There was no information about how many units were sold, though they are being installed in 8 different theatres in Kansas, Kentucky and Missouri. Read More »
Popularity: 33% [?]
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Starting with this entry we’re going to try something a little different and from time-to-time begin posting video interviews and demos of some of the technology and companies we come across. You may enter comments directly in each video by clicking on the plus (+) sign in the progress bar.
A few weeks ago I had the pleasure to visit an interesting company that has been flying under the radar in the digital cinema space. I had never heard of DFE Technologies when I ran into Talla Garestani, DFE’s a project coordinator, while standing in line at the Apple Store in Woodland Hills. What she told me about DFE peaked my interest enough to want to find out more about them.
For the past several years DFE has been perfecting a hard drive duplication and distribution system for digital cinema. While some digital content is delivered to movie theatres via satellite, most of digital prints make their way onto screens via hard drive. There has been numerous reports about such hard drives arriving at their destination and not working properly. DFE believes their system could provide the solution to this problem.
DFE’s Digital Cinema System consists of several products starting with the SmartPac, a hot swappable SATA hard drive encased in a durable aluminum shell. Unlike most of the drives being shipped to theatres today, which were only meant to be removed from servers should they fail, DFE’s drive was designed specifically for traveling. The company has been shipping them out to theatres using a hard case with a form fitting foam insert. Read More »
Popularity: 37% [?]
RealD's Disposable 3D Glasses
Late last week I picked up on a rumor that was circulating about European exhibitors. Apparently, they are rejecting digital 3D versions of DreamWorks Animation’s “Monsters vs. Aliens” in lieu of 2D digital and 35mm prints as a response to being told that distributors will not pick up the tab for 3D glasses. The film opens internationally on March 27th.
Disposable polarized 3D glasses cost between 50 and 99 cents (USD) and are required to view digital 3D movies shown using systems manufactured by RealD and Masterimage. “Active glasses”, which operate using LCD lenses that flicker open and closed at the shutter rate of the projector, are reusable and cost upwards of USD $$25 to $30. Such glasses are necessary to view 3D films shown using XpanD technology. Reusable glasses for Dolby’s color wheel system cost USD $23. More than likely the dispute is over disposable glasses rather than reusable glasses since it is generally accepted that the exhibitor will be responsible for the latter.
In North America it has become a somewhat common practice for the distributor of a 3D film to pay for disposable glasses in part or entirely. This may not last however since distribution chiefs such as Mark Christiansen of Paramount Pictures have said they are determining whether they will be reimbursing an exhibitor for the cost of disposable glasses on a film by film basis.
The theatre owners that reported the unofficial boycott of “Monsters vs. Aliens” in 3D were from the Netherlands, the United Kingdom and a few Scandinavian countries. Equipment manufacturers and the few dealers I spoke with confirmed the story, and were somewhat frustrated as they believe such issues will hold up the rollout of digital cinema in Europe. Read More »
Popularity: 100% [?]
ISDCF Chairman Jerry Pierce
On Tuesday at the AMC Burbank 16 in Burbank, CA, the Inter-Society Digital Cinema Forum (ISDCF) held a luminance level demonstration of digital 3D content which had been mastered for different light levels. The ISDCF is not a standards body and thus the demo was not a test, but simply a way for industry professionals to see what 3D content would look like at brighter levels than the 4 foot-lamberts (ftL) to 4.5 ftL that is common luminance for most 3D movies today. One of the goals was to examine the emotional and technical impact of screening the content at different luminance levels.
Speaking of the content, material from the following films was shown:
- “Journey To The Center of the Earth 3D”
- “Miley Ray Cyrus/Hannah Montana: Best of Both Worlds”
- “The Polar Express”
- “Tokyo Mater”
- “U2:3D”
A brand new Christie XD projector was brought in and connected to Doremi DSVJ2 server. Since it already existed at the theatre, the RealD XLS system was employed as the 3D technology. As well, RealD’s dynamic EQ was used to “ghostbust” the content as it was piped between the server and the projector. The Christie projector was set to triple flash (show each frame three times per eye).
Unfortunately, the ISDCF did not receive raw footage so that they could be timed from scratch. Instead they received material that had already been mastered for 4.5 ftL. Any adjustments made to master the content for higher luminance levels were made on top of this. As well, all of the clips were either set at night or were indoors. There was no daylight footage. All of the clips were originally shot on digital rather than film.
Read More »
Popularity: 60% [?]
Central Europe will soon be able to experience 3D digital releases the way filmmakers had intended thanks to Palace Cinemas. Tomorrow the exhibitor will announce they will be adding twelve 3D digital screens to their circuit just in time for Dreamworks Animation’s “Monsters vs. Aliens” to premiere on March 26th.
Palace, which is the largest exhibitor in the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary, will install three screens in Prague, two screens in Brno, two in Bratislava and an additional five in Budapest, where the company is headquartered. The news is a bit of a coup for Masterimage. The Korean company’s 3D technology has been selected for 11 of the installations. Palace, which already has one RealD system, will install an additional RealD screen at West End, one of their premiere venues in Budapest. Recently RealD and Dolby have stolen the spotlight when it comes to making announcments about new 3D installations.
“We like Masterimage, said Palace CEO V.J. Maury of why they chose the technology. “It’s a combination of great 3D on the screen and the right price. And we wouldn’t add another RealD screen at West End if it were not for its excellent 3D picture.”
Read More »
Popularity: 66% [?]
Posted in
Countries,
Digital 3D,
Digital Cinema
Tagged as
Barco,
Czech Repblic,
Film-Ton-Technik,
Hungary,
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Palace Cinemas,
RealD,
Sloviaka,
V.J. Maury,
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Paramount's Mark Christiansen
Since January 22nd, when we first posted our story on Paramount’s direct-to-exhibitor virtual print fee agreement, we have received quite a bit of correspondence on the topic. Some typed out their thoughts in the comments section of the post, (and thank you for that). Many of your emails asked questions about the agreement that we were simply unable to answer as we did not have enough information. So, we felt it would be best to turn to the most qualified person to answer some of these questions; Mark Christiansen, Paramount’s executive vice president for motion picture distribution.
We compiled all of your questions into an email and sent it off to Mr. Christiansen. He was kind enough not only to respond, but also to let us post the VPF agreement for your review. At the time of his response in February, Mr. Christiansen said the feedback he was receiving about the deal was entirely positive and he was happy to report that between 10 and 12 exhibitors had already made commitments to sign the agreement. He understandably declined to state exactly which exhibitors given that details were still being worked out.
You might think some of Mr. Christiansen’s responses are rather brief, though please keep in mind he was answering these questions via email. When necessary we’ll provide our own interpretation of his responses, which are noted as such. Please do not mistake this for Mr. Christiansen’s own opinions or responses.
Celluloid Junkie: Why did Paramount wait until now to put together a VPF they can offer direct to exhibitors? Why not last year or earlier?
Mark Christiansen: DCI compliance testing was not available. We wanted to have a testable specification in place before going directly to exhibitors.
Read More »
Popularity: 45% [?]
John Fithian of NATO
These days, with the global economic crisis at full force dominating headlines, it seems mainstream media will jump on anything that even smells like positive news. So, it’s no wonder with North American box office earning a billion dollars in January and an additional US $800 million in February that media outlets would break their tradition of only covering box office grosses on Monday mornings in favor of feature stories about how moviegoers have returned to theatres.
A spate of articles in various publications was kicked off on February 25th by Andreas Fuchs’ Film Journal piece in which John Fithian, president of the National Association of Theatre Owners (NATO), holds forth in a “state of the industry” interview. A good portion of the lengthy piece is devoted to the current state of the digital cinema transition, which Fithian still believes will heat up in 2009 despite any financial woes. Fithian then goes on to describe the exhibition industry as being “recession-resilient” though stopped short of calling it “recession-proof”:
“The cinema is a relatively inexpensive way to be entertained. If people don’t have money to go on a big vacation, they take a mini-holiday at their local movie theatre. So the environment of challenging times is generally good for us, but that doesn’t mean it always works. You need to have good movies. People are not going to escape the burdens of the day by going to see a bad film.”
While U.S. box office set an all time record in 2008 with US $9.79 billion in grosses, Fithian points out that admissions were actually down 2.5% Read More »
Popularity: 36% [?]
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