The full scale roll-out of digital cinema installations could begin as early as next year, according to new analysis from Screen Digest.
At present, only 160 screens worldwide have high-end digital cinema presentation capability, equivalent to just one-eighth of one per cent of total first-run cinemas. However, initial screenings have proved popular, with a recent survey showing that 85% of filmgoers enjoyed their digital experience more than an analogue film presentation (see
Cinema Audiences Give Thumbs Up To Digital).
More encouragement can be drawn from the growth of pre-show digital advertising which is now available in over 2,750 screens on five different continents. This number is set to double by the end of 2003 as operators make a priority out of the provision of low-cost networked projectors.
Screen Digest claims that while digital cinema is “the most significant technological change in cinema exhibition since tha launch of sound”, now is the time to concentrate on business and financial matters. Changing release patterns and growing opportunity costs are among the prime considerations.
“The opportunity cost of film releases, rather than the $1.36 billion annual print cost, is what will drive digital cinema deployment,” said Patrick von Sychowski, the author of Digital Cinema Business Models: Global Outlook. “It is only in the context of Ultra-wide releases, piracy resulting from long international windows, distributors adopting a take-the-opening-weekend-box-office-money-and-run and DVD earning more than cinemas that switching to digital cinema makes sense.”
