Hollywood deals end the celluloid dream CINEMA'S celluloid era, typified by heavy, flammable movie reels shipped round the nation to be threaded into huge analog projectors, is officially over, some 122 years after it began. The nation's independent cinema owners have signed deals worth an anticipated $50 million over the next seven or eight years that will see the Hollywood film studios help cover their costs of converting to digital. Five major studios have signed up and the sixth, Warner Bros and Village Roadshow, is expected to sign its deal this week. Funds will begin to flow within months. Independent Cinemas Association of Australia president Kieren Dell said it took four years for his organisation, representing 140 cinemas nationally, to reach agreements with the American studios. "I'm happy (with the outcome), particularly for the country and regional areas that were at risk of losing their cinemas," Mr Dell said. At the Hayden Orpheum Picture Palace in Sydney's Cremorne, manager Paul Dravet converted all six screens to digital just before Christmas at a cost of more than $100,000 each. Now the Hollywood distributors will pay the Orpheum a fee each time it screens one of their films. The undisclosed sum -- a virtual print fee -- is intended to cover the costs cinemas have incurred installing digital projectors. Eighty per cent of independent cinema screens have had digital projectors installed. The remaining sites are expected to convert now the deals are in place. At digital sites, movies are now delivered in locked hard drives rather than canisters of celluloid, a cost saving to the film studios of millions of dollars a year. Hard drives are cheaper to transport and to produce than film prints, which cost between $1000 and $8000 each depending on the print run, and digital quality does not deteriorate with use. It is expected satellite technology will eventually replace hard drives.