County Theater 78 PreviewsDECEMBER 2011 – MARCH 2012 THE ARTIST (Notice the headline change? Go to CountyTheater.org/treasurehunt) ARTIST (Notice the headline change? THE INCLUDES OUR MAIN ATTRACTIONS AND SPECIAL PROGRAMS C OUNTY T HEATER.ORG 215 345 6789 Welcome to the nonprofit County Theater The County Theater is a nonprofit, tax-exempt 501(c)(3) organization. How can you support ADMISSION COUNTY THEATER the County Theater? MEMBER General ..............................................................$9.75 Be a member. Members ...........................................................$5.00 Become a member of the nonprofit County Theater and Seniors (62+) show your support for good Students (w/ID) & Children (<18). ..................$7.25 films and a cultural landmark. See back panel for a member- Matinees ship form or join on-line. Your financial support is tax-deductible. Mon, Tues, Thurs & Fri before 4:30 Make a gift. Sat & Sun before 2:30 .......................................$7.25 Your additional gifts and support make us even better. Your Wed Early Matinee before 2:30 ..........................$5.00 donations are fully tax-deductible. And you can even put your Affiliated Theaters Members* .............................$6.00 name on a bronze star in the sidewalk! You must present your membership card to obtain membership discounts. Contact our Business Office at (215) 348-1878 x117 or at The above ticket prices are subject to change. [email protected]. Be a sponsor. *Affiliated Theaters Members Receive prominent recognition for your business in exchange The County Theater, the Ambler Theater, and the Bryn Mawr Film for helping our nonprofit theater. Recognition comes in a variety Institute have reciprocal admission benefits. Your membership will of ways – on our movie screens, in our brochures, and on our allow you $6.00 admission at the other theaters. website. Contact us at (215) 348-1878 x112 or at Policies [email protected]. Children under 6 – Children under age 6 will not be admitted to our Get our weekly email notices. “Regular Films.” We can keep you up-to-date on all our events and scheduling Late Arrivals – The Theater reserves the right to stop selling tickets via our weekly email notices. Visit our web site to sign up, and (and/or seating patrons) after a film has started. then stay plugged into our latest programming news. Outside Food and Drink – Patrons are not permitted to bring out- Give us feedback. side food and drink into the theater. Your film experience is the most important thing to us, so we welcome your feedback. Please let us know what we can do Accessibility & Hearing Assistance – The County Theater better. Call (215) 348-1878, or email us at has wheelchair accessible auditoriums and restrooms, and [email protected] is equipped with hearing enhancement devices. (For head- phones, please see the theater manager when you arrive.) Special Thanks: The County Theater receives funding support through a grant from the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, a state agency funded by the Commonwealth of Penn- sylvania and the National Endowment for the Arts, a federal agency. We’re Nonprofit. The County Theater is owned and operated by County Theater, County Theater Inc., a 501 (c)(3) tax-exempt, nonprofit corporation. Contribu- 20 East State St., Doylestown, PA 18901 tions are tax deductible to the full extent of the law. The official 215-345-6789 HOTLINE registration and financial information of County Theater, Inc. may 215-348-1878 Administrative Office be obtained for the Pennsylvania Department of State by calling CountyTheater.org toll-free, within Pennsylvania, 1-800-732-0999. Registration does not imply endorsement. PREVIEWS (78) DECEMBER 1, 2011 PUBLISHED QUARTERLY BY CLOSELY WATCHED FILMS (COUNTY THEATER) 20 EAST STATE STREET, DOYLESTOWN, PA 18901-4311 ISSUE NO. 78 THE DIGITAL CINEMA CHALLENGE ccallaghan © 2009 Don’t let our screens go dark. The Digital Cinema Challenge. The County Theater is facing a direct challenge to its existence: the movie industry is converting from film to Digital Cinema. If we want to stay open, we will have to convert as well. Staying alive. The County has shown install our first Digital Cinema projector by movies on 35mm film projectors for over June, 2012 and our second by late 2012. To 70 years. But very soon all of our main do so, our fundraising must start now. releases will be available only in the Digital The expense. The main challenge of Cinema format (and not on Digital Cinema is the expense. film). So, if we want to show “(Film) prints could be Installation of Digital Cinema future movies comparable unavailable as early as... projectors will cost $100,000 to The King’s Speech and 2013. Simply put, if you per screen. Midnight in Paris, or even don’t make the decision Please contribute to our smaller titles like The Double to get on the digital train Digital Cinema Challenge. Hour and Win Win, we’ll soon, you will be making Use the mailing form on the have to show them on the decision to get out of next page or you may contribute Digital Cinema projectors. the business.” online at CountyTheater.org/ We must adapt or close our godigital. (For more info, contact doors. — John Fithian, President, National Association our office: 215-348-1878 x117 or Our plan. Our plan is to of Theater Owners at [email protected].) THE DIGITAL CINEMA CHALLENGE Commonly asked questions about Digital Cinema and its challenge: Why is Digital Cinema being forced on theaters? necessary for Digital Cinema. If we want to continue to The movie industry has been trying to facilitate this change show exciting new art films,we have to make the switch to for ten years. Their reason is economic. It is much cheaper the industry approved equipment. to make digital prints of movies vs. film prints. Of course,the How does Digital Cinema look? The good news is that cost of upgrading the projectors to “dCinema” falls on the dCinema offers an amazingly sharp and bright picture. We’ve theaters. Currently about half of the screens in the US use been 35mm film cineastes for a long time. But we’ve been dCinema projectors. And distributors have decided that now stunned by the beauty, depth and clarity of movies projected is the time to force all theaters to convert. on the latest Digital Cinema projectors. We think that this What will happen, if we don’t add Digital Cinema? is a step forward into the future of visual presentation. Plus, In a couple of years, we won’t be able to show our big many older, classic films are gaining new life after being arthouse hits like The King’s Speech or Slumdog Millionaire, digitally restored. Yes, some film lovers will always prefer unless we have Digital Cinema projectors, because that will 35mm film. But,on balance, we think that the switch to be the only available format. Those big “crossover” films are Digital Cinema is good in terms of the visual aesthetic essential to our economic viability. They pay the bills that experience. allow us to show the smaller independent and foreign films as well as special screenings like Hollywood Summer Nights What are other theaters doing? Art House Theaters and filmmaker appearances. Loss of the revenue would across the country are also faced with this same problem. We trigger a downward economic spiral for the theater. We are members of a group called The Art House Convergence might not survive. which is a consortium of 100+ independent theaters. We’ve been talking with our peers for over a year about how to What is the time frame? Can’t we wait for a few more address this challenge. Most small, independent theaters are years and see what happens? Putting off this challenge has approaching this problem the same way. We are fortunate to been our de facto plan for the last 5 years. But now the time be financially healthy and pretty well positioned to make the has come. We believe we have 1 year (2 years max) to make change. Some smaller theaters are not so lucky. Some may this happen, before our access to first run art films (likeThe not make it. King’s Speech) is cut off. We will do this in two steps: we plan to add the first dCinema projector by June, 2012 and Is there any kind of a plan B? Can’t we lease? The only the second by late 2012. We can’t wait too long, however, “leasing” available is really just “financing” by another name. because there is a lengthy lead time in ordering and installing We have also explored the distributors’ plan to “help the- the projectors. (And as for waiting so that the price comes aters” with virtual print fees, but, as you might suspect, that down, no one in the industry thinks that is likely.) option comes with too many strings attached. Haven’t we already purchased digital projectors? Won’t there be any 35mm film prints in the future, We have purchased smaller, less expensive video projec- and what will happen to our current 35mm projec- tors that can project digital content at lower resolution. tors? There may be a few film prints made. But those very These have been good for showing alternatives like plays few film prints will not be a reliable source for the movies and operas, BluRays, and the like. However, Digital Cinema we need to show to survive. However, we will hold onto our projectors are bigger and brighter and are equipped with the excellent 35mm film projectors. We’ll keep them for special necessary copy protection for first run films. We cannot use screenings and to show archival prints and classic movies on our current projectors for the industry approved standard 35mm film.