ABSTRACT
The introduction of digital projection in movie theatres offers a particularly interesting opportunity to examine the collective response to a major technological changeover. This chapter sheds light on one of the most important elements that has enabled the switch to digital: the collective regulation of its financing in three different contexts – the US, France and Quebec. The comparison of the switch to digital in the cinemas of the US, France and Quebec reveals unexpected convergence effects of contrasting policies. The policies that both accompanied and enabled the switch to digital in France show how French state intervention in cinema, which previously relied exclusively on an internal system of resource reallocation through the fonds de soutien, has evolved under supra-national constraints. The chapter describes the industrial and cultural issues raised by the digital changeover and especially the link between dominant players and mainstream culture, on the one hand, and independent players and cultural diversity, on the other hand.
