Pirates 3 tops Spider-Man 3 as widest digital release

My friends and colleagues at Deluxe were as always too modest to shout that the digital cinema release of 'Spider-Man 3' was the largest ever, hitting over a thousand digital screens across the world. That record was, however, short lived, as 'Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End' looks set to go even larger. This from a press release from an article in the Hollywood Reporter:

"At World's End" will be the first feature to be released on more than 1,000 digital cinema screens domestically and will be the first movie to bow on more than 400 screens internationally, Buena Vista Pictures domestic distribution president Chuck Viane said.

As of Monday, "Pirates" was set to open on 1,064 digital cinema screens domestically and an additional 410 internationally. Viane said the number could rise before this weekend's release.

"It went up 20-something (screens) in the last few hours," he said.

There are 3,229 domestic digital screens. Precise international figures weren't immediately available, but the pace of digital installations in the U.S. and abroad has quickened dramatically during the past 18 months amid major rollout financing.

What with 'Spider-Man 3' still playing in plenty of screens and 'Shrek 3' also occupying its fair share, this record is all the more impressive.

Why the smallest cinemas matter

I spent the past weekend attending the annual get together of Våra Gårdar, whose 70-odd cinemas account for just one per cent of Sweden's box office and is run by the temperance movement, in Leksand, Dalarna. Was a mad, desperate or starved of sights of the Swedish countryside to be attending an event like this. None of the above.

At the moment the battle is on for how to finance the digitisation of the largest cinema chains in Europe. An old friend joked about how in the next few months the eager European third
party integrators will step off a plan from LAX, waving the VPF (virtual print fee) document above their head and proclaiming 'Digital Cinema in our time!' But the trick is not how to make a deal with the Hollywood studios but how to make a deal on the local level, most importantly of all, one that takes account of all cinemas, large and small.

I joked a while back about the need to launch a 'No Cinema Left Behind' plan for digital, which has been taken up in the US when J. Wayne Anderson was elected MD of the Cinema Buying Group, L.L.C. (CBG). But so far that has not been headed. Sadly there does not seem any concerted effort to do this, either at a national or pan-European level. Instead we still get the occasional misguided call for 'European' digital cinema standards (whatever those are).

The truth is that those that best understand how to save the small cinemas are the people who run the small cinemas themselves. It was these people that I had the privilege to meet, talk to and get to know in Leksand, which also happens to have one of the most beautiful cinemas in the whole country (sorry, no picture). Despite the town just having 5,000 citizens, gets first run films such as Spider-Man 3 and Pirates 3. The team from Fox Sweden were even there to hand out donuts from the Simpsons Movie mobile. And as further recognition of the big-small importance of the event, also attending was Sweden's Minister of Culture, the head of Swedish Television, and the new head of the audience department for the Swedish Film Institute. I won't go into detail about everything that was said, including an off-the-record lunch with the Minister, but I think Sweden has the ability to tackle this issue head on. The answer is not just to try to throw money at the problem.

As a bonus on the trip I also got to visit the only Scandinavian cinema museum, located two hours outside the capital Stockholm but well worth the trip. Have a look for yourself at Biografmuseet, even if it is in Swedish and fall in love with the very idea of cinemas and realise why it is worth saving in the digital age.