US film studios Twentieth Century Fox and Universal Pictures have reached an agreement with digital film distribution provider Arts Alliance Media (AAM) to expand D-Cinema in Europe. The DCinema Today website reported that just under 7,000 screens would be converted to D-Cinema over the following several years. DCI-compliant projection systems were planned for the UK, France, Germany, Spain and Italy, as well as Ireland, Austria, Switzerland, the Benelux countries and the Nordic region.
The underlying Virtual Print Fee (VPF) financing model is intended to divide the cost of digital projection and server equipment between distributors and cinema operators. High conversion costs had been regarded as a major obstacle to D-Cinema adoption in Europe. The agreement is non-exclusive, and AAM was also in negotiations with Buena Vista and Paramount.
Twentieth Century Fox described the agreement as the first significant plan to finance and deploy DCI-compliant projection systems in Europe. Julian Levin, Executive Vice President of Digital Exhibition and Non-Theatrical Sales and Distribution, said Fox remained committed to the transition to a digital cinema platform and looked forward to supplying films for digital projection systems installed by Arts Alliance Media. He said AAM had the experience and technical expertise required to manage the process.
AAM chief executive Howard Kiedaisch called the agreement a milestone. He said European cinema operators now had a practical commercial model for converting their screens to D-Cinema and developing a sustainable roll-out strategy. Kiedaisch expected agreements with additional Hollywood studios and independent distributors to be announced shortly.