The End of Film - Paramount Begins Distributing via Digital Exclusively
posted Sunday Jan 19, 2014 by Scott Ertz
We knew that Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues was going to be funny, but I don't think anyone expected it to be historic. Paramount Pictures has decided to make it just that, however, announcing that the film will be the last one the studio distributes on film. Starting now, if a movie theatre would like to show a Paramount movie, it will have to be done in a digital theater.
Starting with The Wolf of Wall Street, 35-mm reels have been unavailable to theater owners in most major countries. This is a huge change for the industry as 35-mm has been the format of choice for over a century. UCLA Film & Television Archive directors, Jan-Christopher Horak, said,
It's of huge significance because Paramount is the first studio to make this policy known. For 120 years, film and 35 mm has been the format of choice for theatrical presentations. Now we're seeing the end of that. I'm not shocked that it's happened, but how quickly it has happened.
This will not be the only studio announcement we hear on the subject; possibly not the only one we hear this year. With Paramount breaking ground on the digital front, it is expected that the other major studios will follow closely behind. Several studios have issued similar warnings previously, but without a set timeline for implementation. 20th Century Fox said "within a year or two" in 2011 and Disney said about the same. Lions Gate was expected to be the first with The Hunger Games: Catching Fire, but that didn't come to pass, either.
So, why the delay past the initial announcements? 35-mm is still viewed as "pure" to many Hollywood elites, including many critics, and studios were all reluctant to be the first to receive derision from these so-called purists. However, with only about 8% of US screens remaining 35-mm only, Paramount must have decided that the loss of box office revenue and the opinions of the critics had finally been outweighed by the cost savings of digital distribution.
Are you sad to see 35-mm retired? Let us know in the comments.
