Sony Agrees to Digital Conversion Fee

Sony has finalized its deal to pay the country's three largest circuits -- Regal, AMC Entertainment and Cinemark -- a "virtual" print fee in the effort to help the conversion to digital cinema. Sony's deal with the Digital Cinema Implementation Group, a consortium repping Regal, AMC and Cinemark, means that Warner Bros. is the odd man out. Every other major, as well as Lionsgate, has already signed its own agreement with DCIP.

DCIP intends to use the studio deals as collateral in securing a multimillion-dollar line of credit that theaters can use to pay for the cost of the conversion. Those efforts have been sidelined by the economic crisis.

A screen must first be converted to digital before it can be equipped with 3-D technology. Studios had wanted many more 3-D screens by now.

By Pamela McClintock, Variety