According to The Hollywood Reporter, more than two-thirds of US cinema screens – a total of 27,000 – have been converted to digital in a move designed to cut down on print fees and projection costs.
National Association of Theatre Owners president and CEO John Fithian told the CinemaCon conference in Las Vegas that Twentieth Century Fox became the first distributor to send a letter to exhibitors in late 2011 officially notifying them that it will distribute all of its films domestically in a digital format within the next year or two, bringing an end to 35mm film prints.
Fithian noted that his prediction that domestic distribution of film on celluloid would stop by the end of 2013 was becoming a reality, as most distributors share the belief that no one should rely on the distribution of film prints much longer.
