Do movie theaters still use film movies and projectors?
Yes, although all-digital is coming to some of the chains, fairly slowly. No film in that setting, it’s all on disk. There are a few digital theatres in the Los Angeles area. The last Star Wars movie was available in digital. One of the big chains just announced that they were starting to go digital starting the middle of the year. For the high-end projection, 70 MM and IMAX, don’t expect to see digital for some years yet. Just too much data, and the methods to securely transport that much data haven’t been perfected, nor are there projection methods for that much data yet. I’ve actually been disappointed in the digital projection systems I’ve seen – it’s like a first-run 35mm print with no scratches or dirt on the film, but the actual picture quality wasn’t particularly better than a standard 35mm projection. I’d hoped for better. Only the big chains can afford this, you’re looking at over 100,000 a projector to go digital (If I remember correctly). In a 12-plex, that’s a lot of money
