Cinedigm Digital Cinema has announced a long-term virtual print fee deployment agreement with Celebrity Theatres. The agreement will enable the conversion of theatres to digital cinema under the terms of Cinedigm’s long-term agreements with all the major studios as well as ongoing interim agreements with over one hundred independent distributors. Celebrity will be providing its own financing in the Cinedigm exhibitor-buyer deal structure and will deploy up to 30 Cinedigm-Certified screens with installation expected to be completed in the fall. The theaters have chosen to utilize digital projector systems from NEC Display Solutions. Celebrity Theatres currently has three locations in the Baton Rouge Louisiana area totaling 26 screens but is expanding up to 30 screens. Celebrity Theatres is a member of the Cinema Buying Group a buying program formed by the independent theatre operators of the National Association of Theatre Owners to find cost-effective solutions for converting theatres from film to digital projection. Cinedigm is the digital cinema integrator partner for the CBG. “Celebrity has been very diligent in evaluating its digital cinema options ” said Gary Loffredo Cinedigm’s President of Digital Cinema Services. “We look forward to sharing the benefits of digital cinema with all their constituents from employees to customers.” “We applaud Cinedigm’s achievement in eclipsing the 11 000th screen deployment and our ongoing joint initiative toward digital cinema conversion ” said Jim Reisteter general manager of digital cinema projectors at NEC Display Solutions. “More and more theater patrons are experiencing the benefits of digital cinema as a result of this initiative.”
