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Half of UK theaters in danger of closing in five years
posted by
danpetitpas
on
October 23, 2008 at 7:45 am
Almost half of Britain’s theaters may close down in the next five years because of the transition from film to digital projection, according to a Times Online article.
Only the big multiplexes and a few arthouses will be able to afford the £60,000 cost per screen with three-quarters of screens and 85% of box office being in the London area.
The future of 300 vulnerable cinemas in the outlying and rural areas could be sealed in the next few months, according to the UK Film Council, because of the pressure theaters are under to switch to digital.
Within five years there may be no film prints at all to show, and therefore no movies being shown in most of the country.
Read more in Times Online.
Comments (7)
Oh boy. Impatience is something ain’t it?
Note to hollywood. Going all digital will not help the quality of movies!
Here we go again…first the U.S., now the UK, next, the rest of the world!!!!! I still say, and I’m sure CinemarkFan will agree, (in fact I’m sure of it) give me good old 35MM or better yet, 70MM anyday, anytime, anywhere. Thats all I have to say about that!
Since the “movies” will already be in a video format, the pirates will have an easy job pirating the latest ‘movie’. Theaters won’t even be needed anymore.
What’s stopping these theaters out in the sticks from buying cheapo projectors hooked up to a dvd player?
<insert obligatory anti-digital gloom and doom comment here>
Seriously though, bring back GOOD 35mm prints and projection. The ones that aren’t dim, desatured, shaky, and don’t go in and out of focus. And without the stupid changeover marks.
I agree with Movie534. A movie shot for 70MM would crush any of these 4k or whatever digital format. In fact, take a look at these
View link
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Oh, and these (boy do we need to get these on myspace or some other teen-based site)
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Since Jon Favreau has expressed interest in shooting parts of “Iron Man 2” in IMAX, perhaps he should take a look at shooting major scenes in 65MM, and create 70MM DTS prints to be released in selected theaters in New York, LA, DC, Chicago etc… It’s release date is 5/7/10. But with 70MM, you could have a special limited run starting on 4/30/10 in 70MM, then a national release in 35MM, and DLP. Of course this is wishful thinking, but I want to try and get people to take a look at this.
Does anyone know which cinemas out of London and the Bradford Pictureville are still capable of showing 70mm films.