It's gratifying to see my Sunday P1 article on the multiplex chains' digital-projection shell game get a reaction of healthy outrage from readers, commenters, and the webcloud. The issue is very simply that consumers -- you can call us moviegoers -- are paying for a base level of film projection quality that we're not even close to getting and that the top dogs at AMC, Regal, and National Amusements truly do not care so long as we keep buying the tubs of popcorn and vats of soda that keep them in the black.
Some readers have asked me if there's any way to find out ahead of time whether they're going into a theater using one of the transgressive Sony 4Ks as opposed to a 35mm print or one of the other digital projectors, like a Christie, Barco, or NEC. It's a good question, and the answer is that your local multiplex wants to confuse you as much as possible. You can tell you're buying a ticket for a digital print by looking at the marquee -- it should have a "D" or "Digital" after the title -- but the marquee won't tell you what theater the movie's playing in, let alone what kind of projector they're using. And I can pretty much guarantee that the kid punching the ticket machine has no idea. Update: As Phoenix writer Brett Michel informs me, the self-service ticket kiosks in the lobby list the theater nuimber along with the film's title. That should be your first stop.
If the movie's playing in the multiplex's biggest theater, it's a good bet the projector's not a Sony but one of the others. Why? Because Sony digital projectors can only throw a beam of light big enough to effectively illuminate up to a 44-foot screen width, or so AMC's Dan Huerta told me. Screens larger than that have to go with a Christie, as in Theater 14 at the Loews Boston Common, or a Barco, like Theaters 12 and 13 at the Regal Fenway.
