“People in Middletown are getting a presentation at least as good as the best theaters in the United States,” Heilbrunn said. The new digital projectors operate at a high resolution called 4K, producing the highest-quality images. Digital projectors at other theaters in the area are often the lower resolution of 2K, Heilbrunn said.
And this is not just an optional improvement. More and more, Hollywood movie studios are moving away from shipping celluloid film prints to a digital-only model. Therefore, if theaters don’t upgrade, they face closure, said Steven Estes, an assistant manager at the Middletown Danbarry.
AMC’s Hamilton theater on Main Street also upgraded to digital projection over the past two years, a spokeswoman for that theater said.
After the new projectors were installed, Danbarry’s admission prices went up 50 cents, to $7 for matinees and $9 for evening shows and bargain prices of $5 on Tuesdays. There is a $3 upcharge for 3-D movies.
“It’s a slight increase but it’s still cheaper than going to (other theaters) in Cincinnati or Dayton,” Heilbrunn said.
In the new system, there is no film at all. Movies are shipped to theaters in what’s called a DCP — Digital Cinema Package. This is a computer file that is loaded into the theater’s servers and sent to the projectors. The result is a bright, crisp image that doesn’t degrade with scratches and pops as film prints did, Estes said.
“It’s just a touch screen system, and it works pretty much like a DVD player … loading a new movie is as simple as going in to the scheduling menu and then changing the show number,” he said.
An added benefit is that the new projectors are easier to operate than the film ones.
“It’s infinitely easier. It used to take a week or two to train someone in projection, and now they can do it in about an hour and a half,” Estes said.
Previously, Danbarry had two digital projectors to show 3-D movies, but the new projectors use what Heilbrunn said is a better process called RealD.
“We wanted Middletown to have the best there was, and now they’ve got it,” he said.
Danbarry Cinemas also owns second-run theaters, one of which is in the Cincinnati Mall. Those theaters are due to get digital projectors toward the end of this year, Heilbrunn said. The Middletown location has been operating since the late 1980s.
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