Toledo movie houses to get digital upgrade

Rave's theaters at Fallen Timbers. Enlarge

Today at approximately midnight, the final projection light will fade on the Maumee 18, as part of a plan to push Toledo theaters into the digital realm.

The 12-year-old theater is being shuttered by new owner Rave Motion Pictures as the Dallas-based company attempts to establish itself in a new marketplace with three remaining local movie houses: Levis Commons, Fallen Timbers, and Westfield Franklin Park.

Rave officials acknowledge coming under fire by area residents for the company's decision to close the South Toledo-area theater.

"We're very well aware it was an unpopular decision to close Maumee," said Jeremy Devine, Rave vice president of marketing.

At the same time, he said the theater's closing was necessary to "make a multimillion-dollar commitment to Toledo" as Rave converts the remaining 42 auditoriums it purchased from National Amusements Inc. in December from 35 mm to digital projectors, the inevitable future of film presentation.

The digital format, while initially criticized by theater owners as cost-prohibitive, costing up to $100,000 to convert each auditorium, and by filmmakers as sterile compared to film, has now largely been accepted as the inevitable evolution in cinema.

Directors appreciate the ease with which filming in digital allows for changes. For example, a mistake in continuity — say, an actor wears a red shirt one day, and a yellow shirt the next — can easily be fixed on the fly during filming without a costly reshoot.

Studios embrace digital film from a cost-cutting perspective. It's considerably cheaper to send a digital copy of a movie stored on hard drive or through satellite than shipping multiple 40-pound cans of the print to theaters.

And theater owners tout the pristine presentation of the format. Just as with a CD or DVD, a digital signal does not degrade during the course of its movie run. Digital cinema also allows cineplexes to offer alternative content to audiences, such as the Metropolitan Opera's Live in HD broadcasts, concert simulcasts, and sporting events.

"There is nothing that comes close to the theatrical experience that digital can bring to a theater," said Chuck Viane, head of distribution at Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures.

"In the old days, when we had film prints, the very first film shown to audiences is the only time they would see the movie in pristine condition. The film would deteriorate with each number of performances and get scratches. What digital does is allow us to ... keep every performance pristine because it never denigrates."

Texas Instruments' DLP Cinema (Digital Light Processing) is a leading technology used in digital cinema projection. Tony Adamson, manager of worldwide customer marketing for DLP Cinema products, said Rave's push to go all-digital for its local theaters will be a boon for area movie-goers.

"The audiences in Toledo for the first time will be able to see a movie the way it was shot, edited, and colorized. More importantly they will see it that way not only for the first night, but if they go four weeks later they'll see the same movie. [Digital cinema] offers the highest quality on Day 1 and Day 1,000," he said. "It doesn't change."

When Rave purchased 35 theaters from National Amusements, including all four area multiplexes, the company doubled from approximately 450 screens nationwide to 900.

At that point, Rave had equipped all of its theater auditoriums with digital projectors, but National Amusements was considerably farther behind the technological curve; its four Toledo theaters had only two digital projectors, one at Franklin Park, the other at the Maumee 18. The Maumee projector, which is also 3-D-capable, has been moved to Fallen Timbers.

"Our intention is to have every screen in every Rave theater in Toledo be all-digital by the end of the year," Devine said. This includes Fallen Timbers as a completely digital theater, possibly by the end of the month.

All the major circuits are going digital, Viane noted, with approximately 11,000 out of the 40,000 U.S. movie screens already converted to the new format since its introduction nearly a decade ago.

"It's just that Rave got there quicker than any of the others. Part of it is they don't have the size footprint of an AMC or Regal where it takes time [to convert]."

The success of digital cinema also has enabled the current 3-D trend in Hollywood, as more studios look to use the technology to lure audiences out of their home theaters and into the cinemaplex.

Already, Disney has 17 films committed to being shown in 3-D in the works, Viane said, and Disney-owned Pixar announced its intentions that all of its animation will be in 3-D.

"I'm the first to tell you that I'm a very strong proponent of 3-D. We look at each project and say, ‘Would this movie be enhanced by 3-D?'" he said. "Much like Jaws did with sound, 3-D is another tool in the repertoire of a good filmmaker."

But making more 3-D films available to audiences also means taxing the limited number of 3-D-capable projectors available. Toledo theater-goers are particularly affected by this shortage, with only three 3-D auditoriums to choose from: two at Franklin Park and now the one at Fallen Timbers.

"When Avatar was playing in 3-D and Alice in Wonderland and Clash of the Titans and How to Train Your Dragon, there was not a sufficient number of 3-D installs in Toledo theaters to accommodate that," Devine said. "Franklin Park has the greatest number of 3-D and still could not fully accommodate that product flow, and that is something Rave is looking to accommodate [with] an additional 3-D [projector] to every theater."

Also in Rave's plans for the Toledo market is for the area's first large-format screen (think IMAX), most likely at Levis Commons.

"While details and licensing agreements are not finalized, Rave is committed to bringing a large-format presentation for the first time in the Toledo area" by the end of the year, Devine said. "We're awaiting confirmations of what brand that will be."

Contact Kirk Baird at:

kbaird@theblade.com

or 419-724-6734.