Design

Why the Switch to Digital Projectors Means the End of the Small-Town Movie Theater

Hollywood's transition is leaving smaller, more isolated communities in the dark.
ANCA

The Village Cinema in Coulee Dam, Washington, has never had the romantic allure of the quintessential small-town movie theater.

There's no historic building, or old marquis, or setting on a Norman Rockwell-worthy Main Street. In recent years, it's held just one screening a week, the easiest way for the few thousand residents in nearby small towns along the Columbia River to see new movies. As one of the theater's two Yelp reviewers put it, "I prefer to patronize this local business instead of paying for the fuel to drive an hour and a half to a new theater. Great way to pass a Sunday afternoon."