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This topic comprises 8 pages: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
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Topic: Regal to go 100% Sony 4K?
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Julio Roberto
Jedi Master Film Handler
Posts: 938
From: Madrid, Madrid, Spain
Registered: Oct 2008
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posted 05-21-2009 05:54 PM
I see the move to 4K as a question of both, marketing "prestige" and fear of obsolence.
Think that if you commit to the move of thousands of screens to 2K and, for whatever reason, 5 years down the road, when your lease is still only half-paid, something in the market makes "everything" 4K (or even 8K) ... well, you are stuck with a bad investment that never recovered, much less paid off.
I, at least, see 2K not as a definitive technology for large movie theatres, but as a sacrificial stepping stone to 4K or as a budget solution for smaller screens.
I do see 4K as a viable replacement for 35mm film, adding a few advantages (i.e. in labor costs) while providing few drawbacks (higher maintenance costs).
2K, for me, is fine for a small screen in a small multiplex as long as its priced as such (i.e. 1/2 or even 1/4 of the "real thing" 4K). Otherwise, it's but an interim solution that will be obsolete just about as fast as 1.3K was.
Going above 4K is not necessary for anything not 15perf-Imax-like, so it's fine for any theater application for the medium-long term.
Of course, we all wish that there were slightly better 4K offers in terms of quality/reliability and choice of suppliers, but oh well, that's all we have now thanks to DCI stronghold on distribution (competition tribunal class action, anyone?). Otherwise, there are other non-DCI 4K (and even 8K) alternatives in the market today. Or there could be if the demand was there.
I said it many times before here. If the industry wants exhibition to move digital either:
A) Come up with a 4K (or better) $50k/screen solution. Exhibitors may go for that on their own merits (good price, good resolution, good 35mm replacemente, lower labor costs that offset higher maintenance). Sony was close to this with their ~60k/screen offer to the majors.
or
B) Have distributors pay for the 2K interim stuff so that it's "free" to exhibitors. Then exhibitors shouldn't really care to say no to free equipment, even if the quality is not all up to the par with 35mm or 4K, but close enough to get by.
or
C) A $25k/screen 2K solution existed. Well, it may hold on its own too. If such thing is feasible, but probably not if it must be FIPS/3 certified and have DCI's stamp of approval.
Right now, with the VPF, the 3 majors are getting the best of both worlds: almost free equipment paid mostly by VPF and long-term 4K investment that also screws the competition if stuck at 2K.
And the competition that doesn't want 4K (i.e. dislike Sony or find it too pricey) must pay almost the same (or higher) price for 2K and some may not even get good VPF agreements at all.
![[Confused]](confused.gif) ![[sex]](graemlins/sex.gif)
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Bobby Henderson
"Ask me about Trajan."
Posts: 10973
From: Lawton, OK, USA
Registered: Apr 2001
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posted 05-21-2009 10:29 PM
The movie industry isn't "important" enough to warrant a bailout. When you add up the billions they make and compare it to any number of other industries they're way down the list of priorities. Farmers and ranchers in my neck of the woods are a whole lot more likely to get government aid than anyone in Hollywood, no matter how high profile the movie industry may be in popular culture. There's actually a LOT of people in "middle" parts of America who would be perfectly happy if Hollywood went totally out of business.
Regarding managers and good theaters, I agree good management makes a big difference on theaters providing great show quality and customer service or not. However, at the same time short-sighted decisions from corporate HQ will undermine what even the best movie theater managers can do.
Some movie theaters are totally screwed from the start due to piss poor theater design and construction. Corners get cut on the building design, where the projection port is set, how much wall treatment gets applied, how thick the walls are built and what sorts of projection and sound system equipment gets installed. The big chain movie theater manager has absolutely no say over any of that, which also makes it possible for a brand new movie theater to start out being a total piece of shit instead of degrading to that point like so many others do. And then you get to the issue of maintenance. Good managers constantly make noise to the higher ups about broken equipment that needs to be replaced. But the higher ups are the ones writing the checks or refusing to write the checks. Very often deferred maintenance is a corporate HQ choice rather than that of the local theater manager. The "suits" subscribe to "good enough" quality. Hell, they probably don't even watch movies in regular movie theaters. Who needs to stain a Brooks Brothers suit in regular seats among the "unwashed?" OK, maybe I'm going a little far with that, but you sort of get the "suits are out of touch" point with that, right?
Overall, I think both Hollywood movie studios and theaters are really pushing their luck with all the escalating ticket prices, concession prices and premium surcharges for digital 3D and fake IMAX. A family has only so much money they're willing to spend on a "out of home" entertainment outing. It is now very easy for the cost of a trip to the theater to cost more than $20 per person, including the kiddies. Add up the ticket price, concessions prices, surcharges for digital 3D and/or fake IMAX, extra charges for online ticket ordering, assigned seating, parking, etc. and it's just getting too damned expensive to go anymore. After awhile the family is just going to throw up their arms in disgust and head to Chuck E. Cheese. If they want to see that way-cool movie they'll just buy a copy of it on DVD or Blu-ray at 1/4 the cost of seeing it only once at the theater. They'll have the 480p or 1080p disc at home to watch as many times as they like. Or they can just rent the damned thing and save a whole lot more money.
Before anyone says it, yeah, I already know that "people just want to get out of the house." But do you have to go broke doing so? What the hell? At some point a line is going to be crossed and I think the movie industry is waltzing right over it. Worse yet, the movie industry is traipsing past that line without paying any attention to the basics.
We're familiar with all the complaints of how damned derivative so many Hollywood movies are becoming. 20 years ago a sequel usually required a really good original movie in order to be made. Today a movie studio can release a really shitty movie and then make 5 sequels out of it. The studios are spoon feeding the public the same flavor of Vanilla and expecting the public to buy even more of it from one quarter to the next.
Some movie theaters are well run, but most are not. With many of the theaters I visit more often than not I am typically disappointed with the sound and projection quality. The situation didn't seem quite as bad as it does now. Maybe we're getting spoiled by the pluses of home theater quality. Badly presented 5.1 surround is irritating us more than mono did back in the 1980s. On top of that we're tortured by an endless stream of pre-show ads, TV commercials as trailers, movie trailers, etc. before the actual movie begins. With this much TV and movie advertising shouldn't we be getting in for free? Really.
Finally there's the worst factor: other members of the audience. This is the main reason I don't go to movie theaters nearly as often as in years past. If I visited movie theaters with the same frequency I did in the 1980s and 1990s I would have probably already had a psychotic break in an auditorium and beat some cellphone user unconscious with a baseball bat I smuggled into the auditorium. I have thoughts about sneaking an Air-soft pellet gun into the theater to have handy to shoot cellphone users in the ears when they open their phones to start OCD texting sessions. So many assholes in the audience contribute to ruining the movie going experience for everyone else in the room. I really wish I knew what could be done to solve this problem in a positive manner, but I don't. Until theaters can figure out what to do or until the United States has some sort of cultural re-awakening of being more considerate to others I only see the situation growing progressively worse.
With that said, I'm not willing to pay upwards of $20 to see a movie in a theater. Not with what's going on right now in so many places. Some shit has to change for the high cost to be justifiable. Very few theaters are living up to that.
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Monte L Fullmer
Film God
Posts: 8367
From: Nampa, Idaho, USA
Registered: Nov 2004
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posted 05-22-2009 02:08 AM
On this subject: Talked to a mgr of a complex tonight and asked him when a standard 2D movie is playing in two houses in each format - one film and one 2K digital - how well it does in each format.
He mentions that their is really no difference in attendance, but you can tell the difference between the two if one is paying close attention.
Obviously, in the manager's eyes, the film presentation looks so much better than the digital due to the simple result of the "warmth of film usage and presentation".
Wow! .. how many of us "old time audiophile lovers" loved to get into this arguement when it came to the difference between analog sound reproduction (tape, vinyl and wire) and digital (CD, et.al.) sound reproduction - how "warm" any analog recorded source would sound when matched with tube amplifiers, and CD's would be so horribly shoved back in the corner...but you can't tell this to this recent generation...
(Mark, you're lucky that you kept your RR and direct-to-disc vinyl pressings for this very reason. It's like with me and my Victor Shaded Dogs and Classic Records releases...and yes, that is a great LD collection that I got from you along with the LD player...Thx a bunch!)
Now, I can see where 4k has massive shoes to fill: to get their digital presentations as close to the "warmth" of the classic film presentation...and beyond.
-Monte
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