Last week both the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal reported that an announcement from Digital Cinema Implementation Partners about their financing was imminent. The opportunity to play 3D content will certainly be welcomed by AMC Theatres, Regal Cinemas and Cinemark, however from the way the two newspapers covered the story you might get the impression it was the only reason. The financing would allow Hollywood studios to “roll out more 3-D movies in the wake of the success of James Cameron’s ‘Avatar’” wrote the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times said the “money would allow future 3-D film releases”.
Both media outlets seem to have gotten their hands on some internal briefings or at the very least seen an early draft of a press release as they have updated some of the details from previous reports about DCIP’s financing. A more exact figure of USD $660 million was cited by both papers which is down from the original USD $700 million rumor which was first floating around. As well, the number of screens has been upped to 14,000 from 12,000 with the Wall Street Journal putting the number of actual theatre sites being converted at 1,100. The New York Times laid out the details as follows:
According to a draft announcement making the rounds in Hollywood, the new financing, arranged by JPMorgan and Blackstone Advisory Partners, would total about $660 million. Of that, $445 million is expected to come from senior bank debt, $135 million from what is described as “junior capital” and $80 million from equity contributed by the member theater circuits. Nine banks, including Bank of America and Citibank, are part of the lending group. Blackstone raised the $135 million from other investors.
I always find it amusing to see how mainstream media covers the transition to digital cinema in reporting such news. The Wall Street Journal piece states:
In a digital conversion, theaters rip out old celluloid film projectors, and stop receiving weekly shipments of large film canisters. They instead use fiber optic lines to transfer huge digital film files.
Popularity: 7% [?]
After completing 
If there was any debate over whether digital cinema would ever roll out in the European market one would hardly know after the past two weeks. Sure there have been lots of discussion at the European Cinema Summit and Cinema Expo about which European countries would be eligible for virtual print fees, which would have to go it on their own and wether the European Commission would offer any subsidies, but at the same time several theatre chains have been announcing their plans to deploy the new digital technology.
Just a few months after announcing the installation of 12 digital 3D screens, 
Cinedigm has published its Q4 and year-end financial figures for fiscal 2009, which make for interesting reading, given that the company is the only* publicly listed third-party digital cinema operator. The good news is that the company is treading water, not drowning. The bad news is that it does so in a sea of red ink. Let’s take a closer look at the number and highlight some of the key statements in the company’s 
Encouragingly operating losses decreased from $5.9m to $4.9m for FY09 compared to FY08, according to Cinedigm, due to “increased revenues and reduced direct operating expenses and SG&A, offset by an impairment charge and increased depreciation.” Similarly losses decreased for Q4 from $2.4m to $2.0m. But look more closely at the P&L figures lower down, particularly for the last three months. you will see that net loss was improved by $1,889,000. However, this is more than explained by the difference in interest payments of $2,378,000, which is half a million more than the difference in profit and loss for the the last three month. So the depressed interest rates is what is helping Cinedigm, rather than any management miracles.
Sony Pictures has become the next-to-last Hollywood studio to sign a virtual print fee (VPF) agreement with DCIP, the digital cinema integrator representing the three largest US cinema chains (AMC, Regal and Cinemark). This should help DCIP re-start the intended 3 1/2 year roll-out of digital cinema to all of its screens as of this summer, when 
Reading between the lines of digital cinema related press releases is often required to understand what a deal really means, as opposed to what those issuing the release want you to think it means. This appears to be the case with the recent announcement that 
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