In the third dimension

The following is the first story of a three-part series about the cinema industry and its local impact. The second part will feature films made in the Detroit, Mich. area. The final part will be a regional comparison of the West coast and Midwest in terms of 3-D cinema.

Movie theaters across the country are now bringing box office hits to the silver screen the same way people download music to their MP3 players — digitally.

President of Great Eastern Theatres Company Jim Walter said there is a belief in the cinema industry that going digital will be required in order to stay in business, but he disagrees.

"I don't think it's necessary to stay in business," Walter said. "I think a vast majority will add at least one screen for three-dimensional [movies] so they will have that capability."

One of the biggest factors contributing to the digital push has been the rebirth of three-dimensional films such as last year's box office hit "Avatar."

This most recent wave of 3-D movies requires a theater and movie screen capable of digital movies as well as other changes to the theater in order to utilize 3-D.

According to Walter, who owns four cinemas across northwest Ohio, the cost to convert one standard theater to have the state-of-the-art technology is about $100,000, and adding 3-D technology is an extra $30,000.

This expensive price puts pressure on many smaller, independent cinema companies such as Great Eastern, forcing them to decide if upgrading will help them bring in more revenue.

"Well, you're asking the $64,000 question, and definitely the question on the mind of many independents throughout the country," he said. "Is it ‘can we afford it,' or is it a good business investment so that tomorrow or five years from now we're in a position to operate profitably and more profitably with digital and 3-D."

Walter said one of his theaters, the Maumee Indoor Theatre in downtown Maumee, Ohio, is working out the paperwork, and he expects the duplex cinema to cross over to digital in the next 90 to 100 days.

According to the National Association of Theater Owners' website, there has been an approximate four percent increase in the cost for a ticket every year from 2006 to 2009. Walter said he predicts a larger increase in ticket sale prices, partially because of the extra charge for 3-D movies.

"With the 3-D price, you're paying for the experience — the projector, screen and so on," said Jake Cline, a sophomore business management major at UT as well as a manager at Franklin Park Cinema.

Cline said Franklin Park 16 is in the process of ordering and installing new digital equipment.

From the dimly lit upstairs of the mall's cinema, Cline can download, assemble and control digital movies from a small LED screen attached to a brand new digital projector.

With the new technology, cinemas access a server and pay for the rights to download a movie through a satellite along with the trailers before a movie — in essence, the 35 millimeter film will become obsolete.

The film projectors used by most companies require an employee on staff at all times in order to guide the film into the machine through a complex pattern series, wheels and gears — a process that demands a level of precision similar to that of a surgeon. The margin of error is miniscule — one mishap could potentially cost the cinema thousands of dollars.

When film is shipped to the theater, it comes on six different reels. Projectionists have the task to assemble the film, usually taking about 30 to 45 minutes to "build" one feature.

Digital equipment removes the processes of building and threading movies as well as delivering flawless picture and sound to the audience.

"[Digital has] made things so much simpler for us. It guarantees a better quality picture for [the audience], no scratches on the film on digital, it's flawless," Cline said.

Cline said some benefits of digital cinema include allowing cinemas to become more cost-efficient by hiring fewer projectionists and avoid paying companies to ship the films ordered.

Cline added that digital eliminates a majority of the human errors that come with 35 mm film.

"You wouldn't think it happens as much as it does; the wrong movie gets threaded, the prints gets scratched from not threading them right," he said. "You don't get a lot of people who notice stuff like that. It seems that with digital, you take a lot of human error out of it."

While there is a compliance among the industry's members that digital is the next step, there appears to be a schism as to whether 3-D is here to stay, or is just another fad past its peak.

Mike and Carol Beckwith, owners of the Hickory Ridge Cinema in Brunswick, Ohio, said based on their observations, 3-D is a "passing fad in history."

"There are certainly people who are thrilled to pay the extra money, there is no doubt about it. The question is how many of those people are going to the movies regularly enough to keep it going," Carol said. "I don't think it's on the rise anymore. I don't know but we'll have to go season by season."

Cline said the quality of 3-D has changed radically compared to the days of red and green glasses because of the technological leaps made in the past 25 years, and if every cinema conforms to the ways of digital and 3-D, then prices will even out and the premium charge for these movies will decrease.

"I think at one point it will even out," he said. "I feel once we're all 3-D or digital, and that's the only way to go, then it will even out. We're going toward a good direction; we're just not there yet."