Faster movie releases in SA explained
South Africans can look forward to local releases of movies coinciding more closely with international launches, Ster-Kinekor recently announced.
According to the cinema chain and content distributor this is thanks to its project to convert all 438 Ster-Kinekor cinemas to the latest digital technology over the next 6 months.
Asked whether this was because they could now download the movies instead of importing reels of film, Ster-Kinekor CEO Mario Dos Santos said that they don’t download films.
Instead, they import movies on hard drives which then get sent around to the cinemas where it will play. The 160GB+ movie file is copied to the projectors that will screen it.
Dos Santos explained that the files are password protected per site and allocated to a specific projector in a specific theatre.
The main reason the move to digital translates to more timely film releases in South Africa, Dos Santos said, was because movie distributors no longer need to produce and order prints for each site where the film will release.
In addition to causing delays, this also represented a massive cost.
“As a result, we are already able to release and screen blockbusters on the same day as international releases, such as The Wolverine, and sometimes even before the USA release date, as in the case of The Avengers in 2012,” Dos Santos said.
He added that in future, the ease of dealing with digital prints and the resultant lowering of costs will give Ster-Kinekor the opportunity to expand this into more niche film titles.
“In many ways, digital is a lot more practical to work with and thus will allow for more flexibility in programming and the allocation of sites to screen this material,” Dos Santos said. “However, as with any other release, the commercial criteria will need to be met to ensure it is a viable business option.”
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