Smaller companies have been using digital only formats for some years now, but now Paramount Pictures has announced that it is becoming the first major Hollywood studio to stop issuing celluloid prints of its films within the US. Successful returns on The Wolf Of Wall Street, its first major digital release, have been sufficient to persuade it to abandon the century old format.
It is expected that Paramount will still provide film versions of its movies to countries where no digital screens are available, but the number of these is diminishing rapidly, and the lucrative Chinese market, now a significant factor in studio marketing decisions, is almost entirely digital. The company's decision may makes waves in the US where 8% of cinemas still have no digital projection facilities. The UK has almost 400 digital screens, more than any other European country, meaning Paramount won't struggle to market its new products over here.
Although the immediate costs of switching to digital can be high, staff do not require extensive retraining and the prints themselves cost about 5% of the price of celluloid ones, so the move can quickly start saving money. This is what has made digital such a popular choice in countries where cinema is only now becoming established on a large scale.
Now that Paramount has made the first move, other studios are likely to follow suit, and 2014 could see some major changes in the industry.
