Cineplexes Increasingly Screening Nonmovie Content

An article in yesterday’s New York Times discusses the growing trend of movie theaters increasingly screening nonmovie content. Promoted by stagnating attendance, advances in digital technology, and with piracy eating away $600 million annually in movie ticket sales, theaters are being forced to supplement blockbusters with alternative content. While the idea of renting out auditoriums for meetings caught on about a decade ago, theaters have only recently begun simulcasting sporting events, operas, concerts, and even marathons of “Star Trek.”

The NYT’s explains why it has taken so long for the idea to catch on:

What is different now? The economic need is greater, and the technology needed to show live broadcasts and high-definition films is now accessible enough, and reliable enough, to make this a real market, operators say.

About 5,000 movie screens in the United States are equipped with digital projectors, up from 200 just three years ago. Within the next two years, that number is expected to be 10,000. Digital projection systems, while expensive, give theaters the ability to pull off live, high-definition simulcasts — and also open the door for 3-D presentation, something that is expected to lift their core movie business.

“We can now replicate Carnegie Hall across the country,” said Matthew Kearney, the chief executive of Screenvision.

Perhaps not exactly. But a $40 ticket to hear the New York Philharmonic play at Carnegie Hall gets patrons a balcony seat. At a multiplex, for half that price, customers would get digital surround-sound and a close-up view.

NYT: At Cineplexes, Sports, Opera, Maybe a Movie