Regal To Spend $70 Million In Digital Upgrade

posted by Patrick Crowley on December 12, 2002 at 11:51 am

CENTENNIAL, CO — Regal Entertainment Corp has announced a massive digital projection initiative, with plans to equip nearly 80% of its existing locations with digital projectors, high-speed networks, and satellite downlinks, according to a recent article in the Los Angeles Times.

While Regal (which owns both the Edwards Cinemas and United Artists theater chains) plans to spend $70 million going digital, initial plans call only for the digital projection of short films and advertisements. In other words, these conversions will not allow theaters to digitally project feature-length films—at least for now.

“At some point in time, digital projection will become a standard for theatrical films,” said Jeffrey Logsdon, managing director of investment bank Gerard Klauer Mattison. “Until then, Regal believes that if it can put the infrastructure in now, and build a business around it with promotional or advertising customers, it’ll put the company that much farther ahead of everyone else.”

Regal’s digital rollout is in partnership with Christie Digital, a company which specializes in the deployment and management of digitial projection systems.

By the end of the 2003, Christie Digital and Regal plan to deploy the new systems on over 4,500 screens. Additionally, plans call for the installation of over 1,400 42' high-resolution plasma displays throughout Regal theater lobbies.

Read the Los Angeles Times article
Read the Christie press release