Five US studios sign with Scrabble for digital screens in India

Scrabble has signed contracts with Twentieth Century Fox, Warner Bros, Walt Disney Studios and Paramount Pictures that become effective on April 1, and the company is in the process of finalising deal points in the agreement with Universal Pictures. The agreements are based on the self financing virtual print fees model, which is essentially a pay-per-use or booking system.

Scrabble, the sub-continent’s only company whose operations comply with the standards set by Hollywood’s Digital Cinemas Initiative, has deployed 80 digital screens to date within India and plans to instal more than 500 over the next three years.

According to Scrabble, Hollywood collections currently account for less than 10% of overall take from the multiplexes in India’s top eight markets, which itself comprises 75% of total Indian box office.

Executives expect the agreement will enable the US majors to claim more than 20% of the total Indian market.

‘India will see more day-and-date releases, generally wider releases and most importantly all the awesome 3D content which would not be possible without the Scrabble digital platform,’ Scrabble CEO Ranjit Thakur said. ‘Our wish is to convert every multiplex in India which has a potential to screen Hollywood content to DCI compliant 2K or 4K systems.’

In other ShoWest news:

Dolby unveiled its Dolby 3D large-screen system enabling exhibitors to project Dolby 3D on to screens ranging from 41-60 feet. The company also announced that International Datacasting Corporation has licensed Dolby’s 3D color correction solution for live 3D content delivery to theatres.

Cinema projection company Christie released data confirming 99.999% reliability for Christie lamps in Christie projectors. The statistic came from the Christie Network Operations Center, which has monitored more than 10million showings over the last 24 months.

Mann’s Chinese 6 Theatre in Hollywood and UltraStar Cinemas in Surprise, Arizona, will be the first exhibitors to feature D-BOX Motion Systems this Friday for the release of Fast & Furious. The system uses motion codes that make the seat move in time to on-screen sound and images.