For art house movie theaters going digital can mean do or die

The move toward digital projection has mostly taken hold in cineplexes around the country, but what about art houses and vintage historic theaters? There, the transition hasn't always beena smooth one. The Michgan Theater's Russ Collins weighs in in a recent article on the topic. Excerpt: "It's a paramount moment for the industry. The National Association of Theater Owners calls the transition to digital the most important change since the invention of talkies. That late-1920s revolution, coupled with the Great Depression, killed theaters for much the same reason that digital threatens — cost. "Most people are going to figure out a way to do it," said Russ Collins, director of the Michigan-based Art House Convergence, an organization of independent community theaters. "And there are probably going to be some very tragic stories. Change causes those things."" Read the rest here.