MIYAKO, Iwate Prefecture--After surviving the devastating tsunami of March 2011,
MIYAKO, Iwate Prefecture--After surviving the devastating tsunami of March 2011,
The cinema is struggling to raise money to introduce digital projection equipment. But with the distribution of film prints expected to end as early as June this year, the theater won't be able to screen new releases afterward.
"We don't want to succumb to the digital wave after (the theater was) spared from the tsunami," Kazunori Kushigeta, 40, the manager of Cinemarine, said.
The movie house needs at least 7 million yen ($77,700) to introduce digital projection. Kushigeta has started soliciting donations, but so far the cinema has raised only 1.4 million yen.
He is calling for nationwide support, citing the theater's free movie screenings to support victims of the March 11, 2011, Great East Japan Earthquake and tsunami disaster.
A digitized movie can be delivered to theaters via the Internet or on a hard disc. Compared with the conventional method in which many film prints are prepared before they are circulated across the country, costs for distributors can be drastically reduced.
But it would cost between 7 million yen and 10 million yen per screen to install digitally compatible equipment such as a server and a projector. Other devices are needed to present 3-D stereoscopic movies and other programs.
Both image and sound quality will be improved by just going digital. But for audiences, it is not as big a change or attraction as when theaters converted from black-and-white films to Technicolor.
Ichinoseki Cine Plaza theater in Ichinoseki, Iwate Prefecture, which went digital three or four years ago, said the investment did not significantly increase the number of moviegoers.
The two-screen Cinemarine would need 14 million yen to 20 million yen to implement a digital cinema system.
But the theater only makes somewhere between 25 million yen and 30 million yen in annual revenues. It is also difficult for the operator to get a loan from a bank when the theater is struggling financially due to a decrease in audience attendance after the earthquake.
If Cinemarine were to continue operating by showing previously released movies, it would be difficult to keep the business going, unlike theaters in urban areas that show classic films that have huge followings of fans.
Of eight movie houses in the prefecture, Cinemarine is the only one that shows movies on film prints. At least one theater introduced digital cinema equipment with subsidies from the central government aimed at revitalizing city centers. But Cinemarine is not located in the city center close to the coast but in a more inland area. The theater was spared from damage from the tsunami, but it was excluded from government subsidies.
Cinemarine in December last year launched a fund-raising activity. With help from volunteers, the theater also produced badges that were sold for 500 yen each.
Cinemarine is seeking to raise 20 million yen. But it is still at least 5 million yen short of making one of the two screens digitally compatible.
"There is a limit to what we can do with donations from the local area alone. I want to appeal to people across the country," Kushigeta said.
The theater has been receiving donations from outside the prefecture after it called for support on its
Cinemarine has earned widespread sympathy and praise for its ongoing free movie screenings taken on the road and offered at temporary housing facilities and elsewhere. The popular "Tora-san" traveling salesman series, which was filmed between 1969 to 1995, and other films are presented to give comfort to disaster victims.
The cinema hosted a screening for the 140th time recently. It posts reports on its blog and elsewhere.
"If the theater were to close, we wouldn't be able to continue the (free screening) activity," Kushigeta said.
Established in 1997 by members of a film club, Cinemarine is the only co-op movie house in Japan.