thedigitaltheater.com went online on July 22, 2015 and a lot has changed since then. In what really is a short period of time the landscape has completely changed. In 2015 we were eagerly awaiting the re-launch of Star Wars with The Force Awakens, Captain America: Civil War was due the following spring. There were a few other sites on the web where you could find quality movie trailers, but most have shut down, particularly missing is demo-world.eu which a favorite go to of mine for many many years. This week brought the news that ‘Tenet’ will not be released next month (not surprising) and is currently removed from the Warner Bros. release calendar. There is a lot of talk about theatre chains that are burdened by high debt levels, coupled with pandemic closures and lack of content being a deadly combination for the industry. I actually went to see ‘The Empire Strikes Back’ a few weeks ago when our cinema reopened. It was in an auditorium that would normally hold about 200 people if it were packed. With the new set up with two pairs of seats in every other row the maximum capacity was only about 20. There were probably about 16 people there so it was almost sold out!

What will the next 5 years bring? I wish I knew. But I think that this site will either become more popular as people move from the traditional cinema to the home cinema, unless people are only going to watch new movies on their phones. Then there will be no need for multi channels and thunderous bass. The other option is that there is less and less content and this site quietly fades away. I hope it is the former option.

A few weeks ago, a kind reader sent along a new version of the Dolby Cinema Universe (Natures’s Fury) that was sourced from a 4K DCP with a Dolby TrueHD ATMOS track. The bit rate is very high at 92 Mbps and the file is over 2 GB. So if you are missing the theatrical experience, you can grab this file at the Dolby Trailers page. I also have some IMAX, and DTS trailers that I have been meaning to post, and I will be doing that over the next few days.

Stay safe out there.