{"id":42,"date":"2008-10-18T10:23:13","date_gmt":"2008-10-18T10:23:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cinelog.org\/cinelog\/?p=42"},"modified":"2008-10-18T10:44:19","modified_gmt":"2008-10-18T10:44:19","slug":"uncertain-future-in-the-digital-era","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cinelog.org\/cinelog\/2008\/10\/18\/uncertain-future-in-the-digital-era\/","title":{"rendered":"Uncertain Future In The Digital Era"},"content":{"rendered":"

Earlier this month,\u00a0five Hollywood studios agreed to a deal with Digital Cinema Implementation Partners, a consortium of\u00a0 the “big three” cinema chains (AMC, Cinemark, and Regal Entertainment Group),\u00a0 to help pay for a $1 billion-plus rollout of digital\u00a0projection on\u00a0roughly 20,000 movie screens in North America.\u00a0The remaining major studios and a deal for smaller\u00a0cinema operators\u00a0are still in the works, but\u00a0overcoming this initial hurdle basically signals that the long anticipated digital era is finally at hand.<\/p>\n

While this transition will likely take far longer than the industry hype machine has promoted, especially considering\u00a0the current financial climate, there is little doubt we are about to see some major changes. As with the transition from single screens to\u00a0multiplexes 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.\u00a0When all is said and done, there very well might be some different names and alignments\u00a0leading the industry.<\/div>\n
.<\/span><\/div>\n
On a more immediate and local front, there are a few Orange County venues that are now living on borrowed time, due\u00a0to the impending digital era.<\/div>\n
.<\/span><\/div>\n
Under performing theatres, likely to be closed, rather than upgraded:<\/div>\n
.<\/span><\/div>\n
Rancho Santa Margarita 6, Rancho Santa Margarita<\/div>\n
Triangle Square 8, Costa Mesa<\/div>\n
Tustin Marketplace 6, Tustin<\/div>\n
Westpark 8, Irvine<\/div>\n
\u00a0<\/div>\n
Dormant theatres now with little hope for a rebirth:<\/div>\n
\u00a0<\/div>\n
Brea Plaza, Brea<\/div>\n
Brookhust Theatre, Anaheim<\/div>\n
Miramar Theatre, San Clemente<\/div>\n
\u00a0<\/div>\n
Independent theatres seemingly without the means to keep pace:<\/div>\n
\u00a0<\/div>\n
Four Star Cinema, Garden Grove<\/div>\n
Laguna Hills Mall 3, Laguna Hills<\/div>\n
\u00a0<\/div>\n
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\u00a0under the new standard. And, one can’t even rule out some of the larger, high profile theatres, as we enter uncharted waters.<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Earlier this month,\u00a0five Hollywood studios agreed to a deal with Digital Cinema Implementation Partners, a consortium of\u00a0 the “big three” cinema chains (AMC, Cinemark, and Regal Entertainment Group),\u00a0 to help pay for a $1 billion-plus rollout of digital\u00a0projection on\u00a0roughly 20,000 movie screens in North America.\u00a0The remaining major studios and a deal for smaller\u00a0cinema operators\u00a0are still […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-42","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-industry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinelog.org\/cinelog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinelog.org\/cinelog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinelog.org\/cinelog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinelog.org\/cinelog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinelog.org\/cinelog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=42"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cinelog.org\/cinelog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinelog.org\/cinelog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinelog.org\/cinelog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=42"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinelog.org\/cinelog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}