Digital film releases booming, report says

The number of movies released in cinemas worldwide in a digital format has doubled, according to a report by Screen Digest.

There were 97 digital releases in 2005 compared to 47 in 2004. China had the highest number of released with 29 followed by the United States with 27, according to the report.

Screen Digest is an international research company that tracks trends and business practices in the media sector.

Digital technology is already in use in the home entertainment market, but the film world has been slow to adapt to the technology.

The Screen Digest report says wide-scale rollout of digital cinema has been hampered by the lack of movies in digital format.

The final Stars Wars film, Revenge of the Sith, was released digitally in 25 countries and Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire made it on to digital screens in 18 countries. Fox, Warner Bros. and Disney were the biggest users of digital technology and the report predicts all major Hollywood releases in 2006 will be in digital format.

Film degrades with each showing while digital projection offers sharp pictures that won’t fade, scratch or jump no matter how many times a movie is shown.

Digital cameras have been in existence for years now and production houses have been using digital equipment to edit and re-master movies. A digitally produced movie can be distributed to theatres via satellite or optic networks.

The costs of distribution will go down drastically as movie houses won’t have to deal with cans of film or storage needs. As well, the cost of copying will be much smaller as digital files can be stored easily on DVD or on a computer server without having to produce physical copies.

There is a momentary downside for movie theatres that will have to convert their equipment to show such films. Conversion can cost as much as $150,000 US.

Several European countries have already begun the process of converting their cinemas. By April 2007, all cinemas in Ireland will be outfitted with digital projection equipment. According to PC World magazine, Ireland will be the first country to have complete digital conversion in its movie theatres.

As well, the Norwegian government has started implementing a nationwide digital cinema program. The country’s film trade body will begin a one-year survey to examine the issues of a digital cinema conversion and ways in which it can be done smoothly.

Several companies in India announced in March that 2,500 cinemas in that country would be converted to show digital films by the end of 2007.