It took the US film studios three years to agree on a standard digital cinema model — so as not to find themselves in a VHS versus Betamax or HD DVD versus Blu-ray scenario. But a decision was finally reached in July last year and a 200-page document compiled that set out the plan.

Cinemas have lagged behind other media, mainly because of the price of installing digital equipment. However, these costs have come down sharply, making a digital future more feasible than ever.

Howard Kiedaish, chief executive of Arts Alliance Media, a provider of film distribution services, says: “Not only is digital cinema visually better, but it is cheaper to produce and can be used time and time again without getting damaged, unlike the celluloid model.”

Mr Kiedaish has calculated that installing digital facilities at every UK screen, of which there are 3,486, would cost the industry about £60,000 per cinema, or £209.2 million in total. However, he says, it would take just five years for British cinemas to pay this off through the significant cost savings that would be achieved.

The average cost of a celluloid print is about £750, while a digital copy costs more like £125. Taking into account that there are 71,960 prints in Britain each year, Mr Kiedaish estimates the annual cost savings in this country alone to be almost £45 million.

However, more exciting to film-makers such as of George Lucas and Peter Jackson are the visual possibilities. No more will celluloid prints have to be passed from cinema to cinema, and get damaged on the way, ultimately affecting the clear, crisp picture necessary to give full visual impact.

“The quality of digital 3D cinema is far better than analogue. You don’t get sore eyes and it will be taken more seriously by film producers,” says Mr Kiedaish, adding that there is speculation that plans are being hatched to create 3D digital versions of Lord of The Rings and Star Wars in the next few years.

Digital could also change the day-to-day use of the cinema. Already the few digital cinemas that exist in the UK are showing live World Cup football because it is possible to plug a set-top box into a digital projector. But there are quirkier ideas on how the cinema could be used.

“A PlayStation 2, for example, could be plugged in to the digital projector, perhaps enabling mass competitions for children on a Saturday morning,” says Mr Kiedaish. “Belgian cinema chain Kinepolis has also used digital cinema to demonstrate an eye operation to trainee doctors.”

But it was one of these opportunities that provoked the Film Council to invest £11.5 million to convert 240 British cinemas to digital. The Film Council has different hopes of what it intends to achieve from its digital initiative.

It has signed a contract with a number of mainstream cinemas and will fund their conversion to digital in exchange for access to specialist films. With the lower cost of digital prints, cinemas can more readily afford to take risks and buy more arthouse films.

Meanwhile, the large cinema chains, such as Odeon and Vue, are in talks with the American studios to invest themselves.

The question is how fast the cinemas can get the necessary funding. As televisions get bigger and cheaper and DVD and video-on-demand release dates get closer to cinema release dates, cinemas need to start promoting themselves as striking multimedia experiences if they are to remain as popular as they were in the past.

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