During the two-day Digital Cinema Summit held in advance of the National Association of Broadcasters convention in Las Vegas, filmmaker James Cameron asked his attentive audience whether it believed digital cinema could bring people back to the theaters after a tepid 2005 box office year. He answered his question himself.

‘In my opinion, the immediate answer is resoundingly yes,’ said Cameron, the Canadian-born, Academy Award-winning director of Titanic and True Lies, in his keynote address. ‘The way I view it, it is primarily because digital cinema is an amazing technology for 3D.’

Cameron has made no secret of his affinity for 3D filmmaking, developing his upcoming sci-fi epic Battle Angel, slated for a 2009 release, in the format. While he concedes that 3D films of the past have been lacking in terms of content and image quality, digital projection provides the platform required to have these films soar with more spectacular, clear and steady picture quality.

‘[3D] may be the most important part of the digital cinema strategy,’ said Cameron. ‘You have a specific and marketable reason to install the digital system. It will be a competitive advantage for the theaters that use it.’

Cameron offered stats to prove there is strong audience interest in 3D feature film presentation: the animated Polar Express drew US$48 million in 3D IMAX presentation, while Disney’s Chicken Little brought in about US$13 million during its limited 3D run.

A 3D version of a film will allow theater owners to increase admission in keeping with the ‘event presentation’ feel it begets, as well as keep away film pirates, who are unable to photograph a digital 3D print, Cameron argued.

John Fithian, president of the U.S. National Association of Theater Owners, delivered his own keynote at the summit about the packaging, exhibition and marketing of D-cinema, and told the crowd he expects 1,500 digital projectors to be installed in the States by year’s end.

Relatively speaking, Canada will have considerably fewer.

According to Pat Marshall, spokesperson for Cineplex Entertainment – Canada’s largest film exhibitor with 64% control of the market – the theater chain has been watching D-cinema developments closely over the last 18 months, but it will not be taking a leadership position in terms of rolling out the technology.

‘We will be installing new digital 2K projectors in theaters opening later this year,’ says Marshall, referring to new Cineplex locations being erected in Ontario in Milton, Oshawa, Collingwood and Brockville, Brossard, QC and Saskatoon, as possible digital projector installations, on top of the six digital screens Cineplex currently has.

‘We anticipate we will be rolling out digital projectors in 2007 and beyond,’ Marshall adds.

While Marshall says that Cineplex had some success with a 3D version of Disney’s Chicken Little last year – and installed two digital projectors specifically for the film – she calls ‘3D a great film experience, but not one that will replace all other film experiences.’

A new breed of blockbusters is being developed in 3D. In addition to Cameron’s own Battle Angel, the director reported that Robert Zemeckis is in post on a 3D version of Beowulf (due in 2007), using the same performance-capture animation technique he used in Polar Express, while Walden Media and New Line Cinema have teamed up to develop a new version of Journey to the Center of the Earth in 3D.

And through a process called dimensionalization, some filmmakers are rumored to be preparing 3D versions of their modern live-action classics, including George Lucas and his Star Wars films, Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings trilogy, and Cameron said he is looking at updating Titanic and Terminator 2: Judgment Day for 3D consumption.

Fithian called digital cinema the biggest step in improving the movie-going experience since digital sound. Cameron added that, despite the improvement in home theaters and new mobile platforms, there is still no place to see a film like a theater.

‘I’m not going to make a movie for people to watch on their cell phones,’ he said. ‘To me that’s an abomination.’