Digital Dearth in Europe

The time warp that is digital cinema figured prominently Monday in opening-day seminars at Cinema Expo. In the U.S., the rollout of d-cinema systems in multiplexes nationwide is sufficiently progressed — at almost 5,000 movie-quality screens — that exhibitors already are eyeing the additional implementation of 3-D hardware. Pacific-Asian exhibition is even further around the digital bend, with an installed base of about 6,500 screens. Yet in Europe, which has fewer than 1,000 digital screens at present, d-cinema is largely a theoretical discussion.