Hollywood to commit to Kodak film

Hollywood is great at finding new life in something old, from the 200-plus times Sherlock Holmes has been portrayed on screen to Fast & Furious 7coming to a theater near you next year.

Now major Hollywood studios are helping extend the life of Eastman Kodak Co.'s rapidly evaporating motion picture film business.

The Rochester, N.Y.-based company confirmed Wednesday that it was in negotiations with a number of major studios to secure commitments to purchase guaranteed amounts of Kodak-made motion picture film in coming years.

The deals, first reported in The Wall Street Journal, could help shore up what has been a staggering decline in what long had been a big business for Kodak.

Kodak spokesman Christopher Veronda said Kodak will make roughly 450 million linear feet of film for producing and projecting motion pictures. That's roughly one twenty-eighth of the motion picture film the company produced in 2006.

Brad Kruchten, president of Kodak's graphics, entertainment and commercial film business, said the company hopes to have the agreements signed by the end of September. They likely would be one-year agreements that would be updated annually.

"We really want this to be a partnership with the industry," Kruchten said Wednesday. "(Studios) see real value in having film available — certainly we'd like to be able to support that."

And for Kodak, having such agreements in place let it better plan for the volumes it will need to make, Kruchten said.

Motion picture film is largely fading to black. According to projections by media industry analysis firm IHS, more movie theaters worldwide used digital projectors than 35mm ones as of early 2012, with 35mm expected to be a niche format by 2015.

Kodak's main film business rival, Fujifilm, quit making most motion picture films in March 2013, saying it would put its business focus on products and services aimed at the digital wing of motion picture production and projection.

Fujifilm said that while it worked to cut the cost of making such films, "the dramatic decrease of demand in the last few years has become far too great a burden."

Traditionally, most of Kodak's motion picture film was used for projection. With theaters switching to digital projectors, "That's the one that's fallen off the fastest," Kruchten said.

When asked about how long Kodak's motion picture film business can exist given those declines, Kruchten said, "That's the $10,000 question."

The company hopes in 2015 to start seeing significant volumes from its nascent functional print business, which uses printing technology and some film equipment to turn out such products as touchscreen sensor film and printed circuit boards. Big volumes in that business area would let Kodak continue to turn out motion picture film on the side, Kruchten said. The Hollywood agreements "are bridging the gap."