I did not experience the same problems as Mr.Disgusting did. I was at the United Artist in Mary Esther,FL and the picture quality was great and the sound at ours was in 5.1 I was hearing sound effects I had not heard on my surrond sound system at home. The only complaint is that the picture left a foot on either side of black bar but that could be the projector or ratio. I had fun!!!

this is nothing new with Fathom Events. I've been to quite a few of these, and its hit or miss. Saw the Nightmare on Elm Street one they had last september, and it was horrible looking, but sounded great. But earlier that year I saw The Boondock Saints and everything about it was amazing. They screen digitally from one place and they stream it out to every theater showing it, much cheaper than printing up 200 reels of an old flick and sending them out to every theatre for ONE night, it doesnt make sense monetarily, they could never make that back off of the one night only sreenings. Luckily, maybe two weeks after the Nightmare screening, Fangoria held a special double feature screening in NYC of 35mm prints of the original Friday the 13th and Nightmare on Elm Street, which totally shit on the Fathom screenings. I am a little on the edge with the Halloween 4 and 5 double feature though, because the quality could go either way, but being a die hard Halloween fan, and this being my first chance to see them in a theatre, I dont think I can pass this up, especially after being extremely let down by Zombies botched remake.

Actually, I believe the ad for it did mention that it would be a broadcast, that's what Fathom is all about, and a quick google search will clear that up, so I knew exactly what I was getting into, and the film looked and sounded great at my theater. You know full well how expensive making new prints is, especially for a one night engagement that brought in a whopping 15 people at my theater. If you actually expected a real print, you were being naive or just waiting to be pissed off so you could come tear them down here. About the only times you'll get actual prints is for local only one night/one week releases, which are usually original prints that look and sound horrible (I saw Friday the 13th a couple years ago here, the quality was so bad it was painful) or nation-wide major re-releases, like Exorcist or Star Wars.

and by the way, no, Halloween 4 and 5 back to back does NOT sound cool, so if you want to complain to Fathom about something, complain about THAT.

Actually, I am pretty angry. I’ve never heard of Fatham events, my friend just said, hey, let’s drive an hour away to see Poltergeist on the big screen. When I hear “big screen,” I think in my mind that we’re going to go see a 35mm photo-chemical celluloid copy of either the updated version, or a re-released version. Heck, I would have even settled for an original print. So what do I say? Heck yes. I live in Mississippi where the cost of a ticket is $7.00. I had to pay $10.00. I thought that I was going to be in for a treat if I had to pay $10.00. We get there 45 minutes early to get some good seats only to find out that we were the only ones there to see the movie. We sit and wait while the 2 minutes reel (reminding us of thing that we should already know) played over and over and over again. Then they decide to push the showing back 30 minutes because they wanted to give more people time to arrive. They did arrive, a couple and their five children and their friends all under 12 years old. This movie’s original rating was “R!” Then the manager came out and told us that this is going to be a digital downloaded version and to enjoy the show. WHAT!!! I didn’t know that! Why did I pay so much more? I don’t know if it was because he told us that it was a digital copy, but it just looked cruddy to me. That, and the kids talked the whole time too. I couldn’t remember when all the scary things happened, but the father behind me sure reminded me when he told his kids “Alright, cover your eyes, here comes a scary part.” On the 30th of October, I will be watching Halloween 4 and 5 in my house on a plasma screen from a DVD with my girlfriend at my side. Better quality, quiet, and no cost! Nice try Fatham, but you just don’t meet my requirements. Geotis

Uh, Poltergeist was and is rated PG.

I went to see it and I knew something was off right away. The sound was HORRIBLE. It was cool to see the film on the big screen, but it wasn't formatted right for the screen it was on. Now I am going to spend money on a DVD that has SHITTY extras that have nothing to do with the actual making of the film. I paid like $19.00 for 2 tickets and now 15-20$ for an average dvd. If I was big Poltergeist fan I would be PISSED. -Mark

My Poltergeist experience sucked as well. The picture quality was terrible. When I pay $10 to see a movie I want a film print not a dvd projected up on a screen. I can see that at home. The worst part of the night was the fact that they didn't show this classic movie in it's proper aspect ratio. It was filmed in 2:35 and they showed in in 1:85 cuting off the sides of the film. I should've walked out and demanded my money back. The only reason I didn't was because my friend who was with me had never seen the movie before and I didn't want to ruin her experience. Fathom should be embarrassed.

Boy am i glad I missed it. I was really geeked for this because I missed last year's Halloween showing. After reading everyone's comments I can't believe these Fathom guys are still in business. I can understand sloppy visuals if I'm seeing an actual print; I can understand sloppy sound if the 5.1 isn't avail. or something. I can't understand why, when it's outsourced from one location and it's all digital, everything is fucked up. Streaming a movie to different theaters should make it that much easier to clear up sound, visual and ratio problems. Fuck Fathom. I'll never lose sleep over missing one of their events again.

They were never going to strike Prints of Poltergeist for a one night show. Fathom doesn't use film, thats how it is. Thats how its been for a long time. When they did Nightmare on Elm and Halloween last year, they used the dvd versions... it not even digital cinema either... its a lower quality type broadcast projector that the theatres use to broadcast their pre-shows on....

It's weird...I saw Nightmare on Elm Street last year and it seemed fine. But then I saw Halloween and I knew something was a bit off...it just felt like I was watching a DVD and I felt ripped off. I, too, had never heard of Fathom Events and they don't make it clear on their site that it is a digital broadcast...they just say, "it's not a movie, it's better...it's an experience". They know what they are doing by not providing certain information. I was excited about Halloween 4 and 5 but since it's another Fathom thing, I'll probably skip it...I saw them both in the theaters when they came out the first time anyway.

Fathom events is a content distributor in partner with National Cinemedia. National cinemedia operates digital XGA equipment and delivery in NCM theaters. Your theater has a DirectWay sattellite dish that receives the feed from NCM. The resolution of the received content is XGA (1k resolution) Which is more than good enough for your average sized screen. The projector itself has excellent quality for smaller screens, but pixelates and looses lumens when thrown at a 50ft+ screen. The Christie roadrunner L6's are typically not calibrated correctly simply because theese events only happen a few times a year, The rest of the time, its used for National Cinemedia's "First look" pre show (Who really cares how commercials are presented?)The theater is responsible for picture presentation. Color adjustments, framing adjustments, and picture size can be made by managers on the Fathmom test date (10 days before event) To deliver the best quality. Im a manager at a regal cinemas in colorado. If you spend the time adjusting settings and installing secondary bulbs, then you can actually get a very nice picture. If you have a problem with picture quality(Digital keystone, sharpness, color bleed etc) Then let the theater manager know, because they were supposed to fix that before the show. The one problem you CANT fix, is audio quality. The mix received is a 364kbs stereo Non Sync mix.(thats very high quality for stereo). The content runs through a PC stationed at every projector. 5.1 cannot be accomplished this way. Also, on the comment about it not being presented in true cinemascope 2:35, The Digital projectors used do not support 2:35, They are native 16X9. 2:35 Digital cost about 100grand per projector and would be extremly cost inefficient. Theaters already eqiupped with 2k SXGA DLP 2:35 cinema projectors dont have the neccessary delivery equipment to run a feed through that projector. The content has to be delivered through a ChristieNET CCM device (about $1300)which is incompatible with NEC digital projectors (2nd most common DLP cinema projector) If you were expecting a 35mm print, then i dont know what to tell you, because i can guarentee you that tickets would be a hell of a lot more expensive if they used that method. Low quality prints cost about $1,500. and thats not including the licensing cost that NCM would pass on to you through the ticket price. #1) You just wouldnt see it unless you lived in the top 5 markets, or #2) You would be paying at least $100-150 for a ticket so NCM could just BREAK EVEN. Or i guess you were expecting an original 35mm print? Ill pass on scratched and faded prints thank you very much. Basically, the picture presentation you get is what you paid for. Your probably thinking "Hey i paid $10 to see it and it was worse quality then the movie i could have seen for $7". But keep in mind that thousands of people will watch that print, making it worth the invesment. No ones going to make a print of a old movie that will sell only a few tickets. Find me any corporation in this world thats willing to absorb a loss that big and ill find you a company thats going out of business.