Exorbitant screen adjustment costs are forcing cinemas to bail out of the Hollywood 3D revival

Cinema chains are threatening not to screen the latest 3D blockbusters if the big Hollywood production studios do not help pay for installing expensive 3D projectors, reports Politiken newspaper.

Nordisk Film, the country’s largest cinema chain, has spent millions installing new 3D projectors at six of its movie theatres but is refusing to continue investing in the equipment.

John Tønnes, head of Nordisk Film Biografer, said film companies were not providing any funding to the movie theatres to install the screens, which cost about 1 million kroner per cinema.

‘We can’t agree with the film companies on the right split between income and expenses for the alterations, so we aren’t putting any more 3D movies on our programme – even though there’s going to be a lot of them coming out this autumn,’ he said.

The same goes for the country’s other large chain, CinemaxX, which together with Nordisk Film represents 90 percent of all movie tickets sold in the country.

Denmark director Kim Borchdorf said CinemaxX was is in the process of buying 3D equipment but would let it collect dust indefinitely if the film production companies refused to help pay for it.

Kim Pedersen, head of national cinema association Danske Biografer, said if all theatres were required to install the equipment necessary for 3D movies it would be ‘the biggest swindle in history’.

Pedersen pointed out that digital technology already saved the film industry billions, since they no longer had to produce and transport traditional reel-to-reel films.