Kodak Emerges From Bankruptcy: What It Means for Hollywood

On the heels of Tuesday’s news that Kodak has emerged from Chapter 11, Kodak Entertainment & Commercial Films president Andrew Evenski spoke with The Hollywood Reporter about the film manufacturer’s plans to keep its product in Hollywood while acknowledging that the market is shrinking due to increased reliance on digital imaging.

While digital cameras have become common, there are still high-profile filmmakers that are not giving up on celluloid. J.J. Abrams is making his Star Wars movie on film. Also using film is Christopher Nolan for his Interstellar, Wally Pfister for Transcendence and Marc Webb for The Amazing Spider-Man 2. Six of the nine movies nominated for the Oscar for best picture were shot on film.

Yet as of June, more than 75 percent of the world’s cinema screens already supported digital projection.

Evenski pointed out that Kodak has commitments to supply film to the six major studios, for both production needs as well as distribution for the portion of the theatrical market that continues to rely on film projection. He said these commitments run through 2014 or 2015, depending on the studio.

The global market for film varies from country to country. “There still is a very sizable market, particularly in Latin America and Eastern Europe,” Evenski said. “We are still providing them with a lot of film.”

Asked if Kodak will continue to invest R&D in new stock, Evenski responded that Kodak is currently focused on work toward controlling costs, as the volume of film production has obviously decreased. “We’re focused on keeping the cost of film down and making it a viable option,” he said.

The company’s most recent stocks include its Vision 3 line, as well as Color Asset Protection Film 2332, which was introduced roughly a year ago, aimed at archival and preservation uses — where film is still widely relied upon.

In recent years, there has been a lot of attention on Deluxe and Technicolor — the two largest lab service providers in the world — which have been steadily shrinking their global footprint. “We had to reduce our footprint, so they did too,” Evenski said, asserting that “the landscape will change. … I still see Technicolor and Deluxe there. I believe there are 103 labs running today worldwide.”