Close on the heels of a similar arrangement between Sony and Disney to promote digital cinema, Paramount Pictures is offering digital cinema support to exhibitors in the international markets.
The idea is to accelerate the roll-out of digital and 3-D projection systems in theatres. The announcement was made at ShoWest by Roger Pollock, Paramount’s executive VP of International Theatrical Distribution and Operations.
In the case of Sony and Disney, the companies will work together to provide operational and financial resources to exhibitors that encourage them to feature Sony’s 4K SXRD projection technology in both 2D and 3D digital cinema-enabled screens across North America and Europe.
Sony’s digital cinema group has now signed digital cinema deployment agreements with four major studios: Walt Disney, Twentieth Century Fox, Paramount Pictures, and Sony Pictures Entertainment.
Similar to the deal announced by Paramount Pictures in the US in January, the international deal will enable exhibitors to seek financing for d-cinema systems locally as an alternative to joining in an integrator agreement which requires significantly more upfront capital.
In addition, the agreement will allow exhibitors to own and control their equipment and to switch to an integrator-supported agreement at a later date if desired. The new agreement is open to independent theatres that do not belong to any integrator groups.
To date, Paramount Pictures International has signed six digital cinema integration deals outside of the US and Canada. They include three deals with European integrators XDC, Arts Alliance Media, and Ymagis and three deals with Asian integrators DCK, GDC, and Scrabble.
