Digital Distribution - Wiki

Impact on distribution

Digital distribution of movies has the potential to save money for film distributors. To print an 80-minute feature film can cost US$1,500 to $2,500,^[25] so making thousands of prints for a wide-release movie can cost millions of dollars. In contrast, at the maximum 250 megabit-per-second data rate (as defined by DCI for digital cinema), a feature-length movie can be stored on an off-the-shelf 300 GB hard drive for $150 and a broad release of 4000 'digital prints' might cost $600,000. In addition hard drives can be returned to distributors for reuse. With several hundred movies distributed every year, the industry saves billions of dollars.
The digital cinema rollout was stalled (as can be seen by major equipment purchases and future commitments to new equipment during this time); exhibitors acknowledged that they would not purchase equipment to replace projectors since the savings would be seen not by themselves but by distribution companies. The Virtual Print Fee model was created to address this (some claim by Frank Stirling at Boeing - Boeing was involved in digital cinema deployment at that time) and this was successfully done, accelerating the rollout of this technology and with it the reduction of the barrier to entry. Given that digital projectors make low volume distribution at last an economic possibility it is the studios' support of the VPF model that has accelerated the introduction of competition, both in terms of alternative distributors and also alternative content including cinematic series.
Due to rapid conversion to digital projection, film prints have become an ever dwindling minority in theatrical releases.

Live broadcasting to cinemas

Digital cinemas can deliver live broadcasts from performances or events. For example, there are regular live broadcasts to movie theaters of Metropolitan Opera performances. In February 2009, Cinedigm screened the first live multi-region 3D broadcast through a partnership with TNT. Previous attempts have been isolated to a small number of screens. In December 2011, the series finale of the BBC dance competition series Strictly Come Dancing was broadcast live in 3D in selected cinemas.^[29]

Criticism and concerns

High profile film directors such as Christopher Nolan,^[30] Paul Thomas Anderson^[31] and Quentin Tarantino have publicly criticized digital cinema, and advocated the use of film and film prints. Most famously, Tarantino has suggested he may retire because (although he can still shoot on film) he cannot project on 35mm prints in most American cinemas, because of the rapid conversion to digital.^[32] Steven Spielberg has called digital projection "inferior" compared to film, and attempted at one point to release Indiana Jones 4 on motion picture film only.^[33] Paul Thomas Anderson recently was able to create the most 70mm Film prints in years for his film The Master (2012 film).
Roger Ebert publicly criticized the use of DCP's after a cancelled film festival screening of Brian DePalma's film Passion (2012 film) at New York Film Festival caused by a lockup due to the coding system.^[34]
The theoretical resolution of 35 mm film is greater than that of 2K digital cinema. ^[35][36] 2K resolution (2048×1080) is also only slightly greater than that of consumer based 1080p HD (1920x1080).^[37]