European theater owners are meeting in Barcelona right now for the annual CineEurope convention, and a chief topic of conversation surrounds the extra cost that exhibitors expect to pay in order to project Peter Jackson's two-part adaptation of The Hobbit when the first film releases in December.

We Saw Part of The Hobbit ... and It Didn't Look So Good

says that distribution of the film, which was shot at 48 frames per second rather than the standard 24, will cost theater owners more because the technology requires upgrades to projection systems.Jackson is attempting to push the boundaries of filmmaking with the move into 48 fps, but as we reported back in April when we screened some 10 minutes of-- almost like watching a live television broadcast rather than a proper "film."

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"As we know, software updates are not free to exhibitors," European Digital Cinema Forum CEO David Monk said at the conference. "They take time and money, and you have to shut down the systems to install. Then they have to be tested."THR adds that there are almost 4,000 screens in North America equipped right now with the Barco Series 2 projectors and the required software update to play 48 fps. Additionally, Sony plans for most of its 13,000 installed 4K digital cinema projectors to also support the format by the time The Hobbit is released.

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