DISNEY TO RELEASE FOUR DIGITAL MOVIES.

Byline: Dave McNary Staff Writer

Walt Disney Co. gave a major boost Friday to digital cinema by announcing it will show four high-profile movies, including ``Toy Story 2,'' in selected theaters in the new format.

The entertainment giant, taking the lead in promoting the new technology, will launch digital showings on the same date as the launch of the regular release, the first time a film has opened in both formats simultaneously.

``Toy Story 2'' opens Friday in digital form at the El Capitan in Hollywood, followed by a nationwide rollout Nov. 24 that will include digital showings at the AMC in Burbank and theaters in Irvine, San Francisco, Florida and Texas.

``Bicentennial Man'' will receive similar treatment on Dec. 17 at sites in Chicago, Cleveland, Kansas City, Phoenix, Toronto and Vancouver, while ``Mission to Mars'' will be shown digitally in 12 theaters in March. Disney's key animated summer release, ``Dinosaur,'' will be handled similarly.

The move by Disney comes less than five months after the world's first digital showings took place with ``Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace'' at four theaters and ``An Ideal Husband'' at one site.

The new technology eliminates scratches and faded colors from repeated showings of celluloid film and generates savings in distribution. The unanswered question remains who will pay for installing digital systems, which will cost at least $100,000 compared with $20,000 for a conventional projector.

``This is a new process for cinematographers, directors, exhibitors and the public, so we need feedback,'' said Bob Lambert, Disney's senior vice president for new media and technology. ``We want people to get comfortable with it.''

The movies will be shown using Texas Instruments projectors, which convert digital signals to light and contain three microchips with 1.3 million mirrors each. Lambert said each projection system will be installed for two years with costs assumed by Disney, the exhibitors and TI.

In previous digital showings, exhibitors ran a conventional 35 mm projector in the booth at the same time as a back-up system, but the digital systems operated without problems. Lambert said the decision whether to use both systems at once would be left up to exhibitors.

AMC executive Richard Fay said digital showings of ``Tarzan'' and ``Phantom Menace'' in Burbank boosted grosses without technical problems.