Digital print has become a lifeline for many indie filmmakers.

Having said that, I\’d happily pay double price for watching a good 70 mm copy of Lawrence of Arabia on a large screen, as opposed to ridiculous, overpriced, 3D rubbish pretending to throw things at me.

I think we should consider this, attaching film rolls to the metal reels AT THE THEATERS so we don\’t have to ship these giant reels.

Just train someone at the theaters how to attach a film roll onto the reels.

Can\’t be that hard can it?

I don\’t see this argument working at a basic financial level.

The other critical point is differentiation between home viewing and theater viewing. When television came out, the motion picture industry came up with ways to attract people back into the big screen. However, prior to HD television, there was no contest, 35mm projection looked amazing in comparison. Today, most people\’s home television is higher quality then any movie theater and most importantly, better contrast ratio. So the only reason for going to the theaters is to deal with expensive tickets, long lines, horrible seats, idiots on cell phones ruining the experience and half an hour of commercials before the show. Basically, there is zero reason to go because I have a digital cinema projector at my house, I have a fancy home theater and popcorn as well. I just wait for the movies to come out on BluRay and project it on my 15 foot wide wall. Sure, it\’s not quite the same experience as I can only fit 8 people in my room, but honestly it\’s a lot cheaper and easier.

The reason why film needs to stick around AND be projected is to differentiate the movie theater from the home theater. Upping the resolution isn\’t going to do anything because as pointed out above, very few people will notice a difference in resolution. However, most people will notice the difference between good film projection and digital projection. I\’m talking films finished photochemically and projected properly on 35 or 70. It\’s an old-school process, but its the only way to make what\’s seen at the theater stand out. It\’s IMPOSSIBLE to see that image at home, it\’s IMPOSSIBLE to see that image after the initial screenings as well. Once the prints are worn, they\’re returned/destroyed and you will "Never get that experience again". I\’ve tried to mimmic the experience of seeing "Interstellar" in 70mm at home, but it\’s no good. I\’d do anything to watch that beautiful 70mm print again at the Cinerama Dome on the curved screen, with the audio set to 11, but that will never happen again.

This is the reason why film needs to stick around. It\’s actually going to be the medium that saves the movie theater in the end. Why? Because IT\’S DIFFERENT! and it CAN\’T BE SEEN AT HOME!!! A well calibrated projector and decent projectionist, can present a 35mm print perfectly. 70mm is actually more challenging and I\’m ecstatic Tarantino spent so much effort and time re-building 70mm projectors in this country. He\’s giving the consumer an experience they can\’t have at home and that\’s the point of all this. You can also add that celluloid is a true art-form because the light that exposes the film, is exactly what is seen on screen, unlike digital which is a translation of that light.

Sure, there are some good digital projection systems out there, IMAX laser projectors for one, they\’re pretty good. Yet, there are only 4 theaters in the world with that system because it costs three million dollars to purchase. Will the price eventually go down? Yes it will. Digital projection will eventually be a lot better then it is today, we\’re absolutely going through the growing pain stage. However, we have 8K televisions for the home now and you can watch \’House of Cards\’ in 4k at home on Netflix. 4k BluRay is right around the corner (CES 2016) and at that point, you really have no reason to visit any movie theater. The movie industry killed themselves by moving to digital; there is more piracy then ever, they closed down hundreds of small-town theaters, they forced price increases and crappy/worthless 3D technology onto consumers, driving people away from the cinema and they\’re making worse and worse movies. Very soon the ride will come to an end and the only thing left standing will be a 100 year old technology called celluloid.

Digital has killed everything in its path: Music is less "warmer" and tv and movies; killed the music video (mtv stopped playing them); no more cartoons, when we would\’ve had three more "Lion Kings" by now if they didn\’t go digital.