North Tonawanda’s Historic Riviera Theatre and Performing Arts Center has announced M&T Bank stepped in to close the funding gap for the industry-mandated digital film projection conversion that will allow the Riviera Theatre to continue to play movies. M&T Bank will become the main corporate sponsor for all movie events at the Riviera Theatre for the next five years.
The Riviera Theatre was notified by film distributors that, by the end of 2014, 35mm film will no longer be supported and only digital films will be available. The Riviera currently uses Arc Light Projectors that have in the theatre since the 1940s. The Riviera needed to acquire a digital film projector to continue to show current and future movies.