What's happening is that digital projector manufacturers are coupling with studios to try to drive theaters toward digital and they will propagate any bullshit story they can dream of to do it.
They tried to say that digital projection will prevent piracy until full quality digital copies of new release movies showed up on the internet one day BEFORE they were supposed to be released in theaters.
They tried to use the "digital quality" argument until the light engines in projectors started breaking down.
Then they tried to push "new and improved" picture quality by upgrading from 2K resolution to 4K resolution. (2,000 lines versus 4,000 lines.) At one time they were saying that 2,000 lines was good enough until they started pushing 4,000. Then, all the theaters that bought into the 2K projectors had to buy new ones to get the 4K.
Now they are pushing gimmicky kid's movies in 3-D just to promote digital movie technology. Mind you it costs another $10,000 or $20,000 to upgrade a 2-D projector to a 3-D projector.
Studios and manufacturers are soaking theaters for hundreds of thousands of dollars PER PROJECTOR to upgrade to digital. They are subsidizing the purchases to drive theaters to buying digital then they are leaving them high and dry when these upgrades come along.
They demand even more restrictive and expensive rental terms from theaters for the "privilege" of having digital projection. They are demanding that theaters "upcharge" customers for the privilege of watching in digital and in digital 3-D.
Yes, more and more theaters are switching to digital. That's not necessarily a bad thing but I don't think that there will be any significant effect on film projection for another 5 to 10 years. Even after that, it will surely be a slow, downhill ride for film but that will take years to occur.
Studios still have too much money invested in producing movies on film. They will not be able to scrap film cameras and production equipment overnight. The logistics and infrastructure of producing movies on film is already in place and has been bought and paid for. Do you think they are going to scrap tens of millions of dollars worth of equipment just to buy hundreds of millions of dollars worth of equipment overnight?
Do you think that theaters are going to scrap $50,000 movie projectors to install digital projectors that cost $250,000?
Yes, you will see more and more digital movie theaters in the future but, at least for the time being, you will see one or two theaters in your average 10-plex converted to digital while the rest of the auditoriums are film.
IIRC, as of right now, I believe 80% of the movie theaters in the USA and 85%-90% of the theaters worldwide are still using film. That is not going to change overnight, regardless of whether they are pushing 3-D movies or not.
Like I said, most people in the theater business still think digital 3-D is a fad that is going to taper off fairly soon. Many think that is already happening.
Most 3-D movies are cheaply made movies for young kids. Parents are not going to want to pay an extra $2-$5 per head for the upcharge to 3-D just to keep their kids from whining in this economy.
Things will surely go digital but not as quickly as people think.
