Hollywood big-wigs agree: digital cinema is the future of their medium, but it's just not ready for widespread deployment. With digital technology taking over media, we ask: what's the point of going
to the cinema when the home theater experience is comparable in quality and much better in terms of comfort? Not only that, but producers make most of their money from DVD sales anyway, so really,
what's the point? Well, executives from industry organizations, movie studios and technology companies met last week at the University of Southern California to discuss cinema's digital future,
looking for answers as to how digital technology can help cinema survive. Frankly, their answers were pretty lame. One suggestion was interactive stuff, like little on-screen question and answer quiz
games, that lets audience members send in answers via text. Presumably they will get a chance to win something for doing this, otherwise there's absolutely no point in playing along. A better
suggestion was making a 3-D experience out of action movies and content beyond movies like sporting events and concerts. Advertisers, who have only recently been invited to the cinema, will be keen to
know how exactly movie theater companies plan to leverage the digital future, as their customers start to consume more and more content away from movie screens.
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