€500,000 was allocated over two years to help cinemas go digital.

Cinemas in Malta succeeded in keeping up with Hollywood’s digitisation of the big screen thanks to the allocation of State funds for the necessary upgrades to be made.

Cinemas contacted by this newspaper said State support was essential and upgrading was being completed.

Last year, cinemas agreed to make a number of free tickets available for children and vulnerable groups in return for government grants that would help them digitise. The sum of €500,000 was allocated over two years under the digitisation scheme.

This followed announcements by Hollywood studios that they would soon release films only in digital format only.

While in most countries cinema chains could apply for a subsidy from film studios to replace 35mm projectors with digital equipment, those in Malta were denied access to such financing mechanism as distributors felt the potential returns did not outweigh the risks due to the island’s size.

Government funding was therefore “vital” in ensuring that cinema operators remained within the industry and that the island retained its cinemas, according Tal-Lira Cinemas managing director Malcolm Sant. Tal-Lira has converted all its four cinemas and screens films in 2D and 3D.

“Since the digital changeover was imposed on us by changes in the industry, cinema operators evaluated other investment opportunities considering the hefty cost involved in the digital changeover.

“The government’s commitment encouraged us to invest in the cinema industry that was heading downwards,” he added.

Mr Sant said the investment allowed the screening of new and second-run films without putting the added cost on clients.

This was reiterated by the managing director of Embassy Cinemas Valletta, Bettina Azzopardi, who said the support from the government guaranteed that cinemas could continue to operate since the 35mm projectors had already been phased out and new releases were no longer available in that format.

At the Embassy, conversion of cinemas is in its final stages with four of the five theatres already digitised under the scheme. The project will be completed by the end of the month.

Another screen had already been digitised in 2011 so, come May, all six screens would be digitised.

Eden Cinemas has also completed its digitisation, converting 13 screens, which, the owners noted, were not all eligible for funding. Simon De Cesare, director of operations of the Eden Leisure Group, which runs Eden Cinemas, said the assistance was needed as they were “deprived” of any international funding and financing that was available to other cinemas around the world.

“The reason was that we were simply too small to be considered for any of these schemes,” he said, noting that the funding was partial. In line with EU standards, large companies can only benefit from 30 per cent in assistance.

The company, he added, invested over €500,000 in the digitisation process, excluding government funding. It was now looking into ways of catering for the less mainstream European film.

Meanwhile, Gozo’s only cinema, which stopped screening films except for private events last year, is still looking into investing in digitisation to see if it was feasible. A spokesman said the owners hoped that the cinema would reopen.