Earlier this month, five Hollywood studios agreed to a deal with Digital Cinema Implementation Partners, a consortium of the “big three” cinema chains (AMC, Cinemark, and Regal Entertainment Group), to help pay for a $1 billion-plus rollout of digital projection on roughly 20,000 movie screens in North America. The remaining major studios and a deal for smaller cinema operators are still in the works, but overcoming this initial hurdle basically signals that the long anticipated digital era is finally at hand.
While this transition will likely take far longer than the industry hype machine has promoted, especially considering the current financial climate, there is little doubt we are about to see some major changes. As with the transition from single screens to multiplexes and multiplexes to megaplexes, there are likely to be quite a few industry casualties over the next ten years or so; a $70,000 per screen investment, partially subsidized or not, is simply too great a financial burden for the cinema landscape not to go through some radical alterations. When all is said and done, there very well might be some different names and alignments leading the industry.
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On a more immediate and local front, there are a few Orange County venues that are now living on borrowed time, due to the impending digital era.
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Under performing theatres, likely to be closed, rather than upgraded:
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Rancho Santa Margarita 6, Rancho Santa Margarita
Triangle Square 8, Costa Mesa
Tustin Marketplace 6, Tustin
Westpark 8, Irvine
Dormant theatres now with little hope for a rebirth:
Brea Plaza, Brea
Brookhust Theatre, Anaheim
Miramar Theatre, San Clemente
Independent theatres seemingly without the means to keep pace:
Four Star Cinema, Garden Grove
Laguna Hills Mall 3, Laguna Hills
In addition to these obvious selections, there will certainly be more venues added to the list over the next few years. One must question the fate of several locations operated by Regency Theatres, who’s, currently successful, niche operation of older cinemas will be tested under the new standard. And, one can’t even rule out some of the larger, high profile theatres, as we enter uncharted waters.
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