What equipment do I need and how would I get films when they are released? (i.e. Get spiderman2 in my house when it is released on theaters)
And what would the cost be?
You don’t. Period. The movies are the property of the studios, and they rent them to the theaters. Unless you are an "A’ list Hollywood actor, or President, you aren’t going to get one to show on your home theater set-up.
If you are an “A” list actor, then you will get invites to private screenings at the studios, or maybe invited to the premiere.
Other than that, you’ll have to stand in line like the rest of us.
It’s not possible. There aren’t even copies made for watching at home. The best you’ll get is what’s known as a ‘screener’ copy, which reviewers mught get in special circumstances, but they are usually plastered with timecode, big copyright notices, and are sometimes only in black and white and are incomplete.
I think the OP’s question is: how does one go about setting up a recognized movie theater that the studios will rent films to, and could someone theoretically have such a recognized theater in his own home?
Well, if that’s the question then the answer is how much the studio charges theaters for the movie. It obviously doesn’t come with the “For private home use only” warnings that we are all accustomed to, even though that might be what it is intended for.
I have no idea what the number might be, but I’m sure that it is in the many, many thousands of dollars for something like SpiderMan 2.
I imagine that the equipment will also run into the many thousands of dollars as well.
Would the studios even do this? On the one hand I say “No way!” because then just anyone could get a new release if they ponied up enough dough.
But then I think - hey, why not? If someone is willing to rent SpiderMan 2 for $50,000/week, then go ahead and print them an extra copy! The problem then becomes ensuring that said renter doesn’t copy the movie and start selling DVDs, but you could probably deal with that on a case-by-case basis. For 50 large you can have a studio flunkie hang out all week and run the projector whenever Mr Big wants to see it, making sure that Mrs Big isn’t taping the movie.
$50K minus flunkie’s wages minus cost of extra print = lots of extra money for the studio.
I’m sure my numbers are off, but now I’m intrigued as to why the studios would say no to something like this.
I was on the photo.net forums when War Photographer was released. A group of posters pooled and purchased a print of the film, from the studio, for $400.
*War Photographer * is a documentary, which means that the studio only needed the price of the print. Try to get a print of Spiderman2 and you are going to have to pay for advertising, movie costs, actor’s salaries, etc. The figures I have heard bandied about by friends in the theater biz is thousands of dollars per movie, with blockbusters renting for tens of thousands.
(all my assumptions, no factual basis)
First off I believe that films released in theatres are all actual films, not dvds. The cost for a projector is probably a hefty fee. And I’d think you’d have to have a pretty specialized setup in your home to watch it. A large enough room, a sound proof projection room (those projectors are noisy), correct audio hookups from the projector, etc.
I also believe that your theatre probably needs a license then has to work out agreements with film distributors as to what films you get to carry along with ones you don’t want but they want you to play. I don’t think they charge you by the film but rather loan it to you, and then they get the majority of the ticket sales.
You make little or nothing off ticket sales and make your money by selling popcorn and soda for 500% markup.
If you want a pirated copy you can go to NY and buy one off the street that some guy filmed by sneaking his camcorder into the theatre. Probably top notch quality.
There is a middle ground in here too. When I was in college, the film activities committee got films from a second run distributor a bit after they came out in theaters, but still way before DVD or TV. It seemed like this place would rent films to anyone. All you needed to show them was a standard projector like you remember from grade school. (Well, two if you didn’t want to have to change films every 30 minutes).
I don’t remember the name of the company we went through. They might be on the web but I think they had a newsprint paper catalog at the time.
I was on a LSD for four years. 
And we actually had movies sent to us before they hit the theaters when we were deployed overseas. Explain that! We’d return from one of our deployments and have seen some of the movies BEFORE the rest of the general public.
Enter the (lysergic acid diethylamide) jokes…
Everything has it’s price. Anything or anybody can be bought. If you were seriously interested in having a first-run, Hollywood blockbuster screen privately for you and some friends in your home, it could be arranged.
You’d have a lot of the expenses listed above, (projector, theatre space, projectionist (possibly Union), sound equipment, etc.) and then you’d have to negotiate a price and a contract for this sort of “special screening.”
The contract would probably stipulate how many times you could screen it, where and when and to whom, who would actually run the equipment, and then of course, how much money/sex/drugs/influence you’d have to pony up.
PS-- making a DVD or videotape copy wouldn’t be so much of a problem for the studio. Any DVD copy made from a theatrical print would not look that great (picture-wise; the sound would be pretty good). You’d get almost as good of a result sneaking a camcorder into a theatre. You really need the negative (or the right kind of positive copy) to make a proper video/DVD version. (However, you may be able to make a halfway decent 35mm print copy.)
And finally, how much? I have no idea. Would depend on the studio, the film, the timing and a whole host of other things (like: do you have any dirt on any studio execs???)
And yes, I know that it’s its, not it’s.
Studios don’t ‘rent’ theaters their films per se. The theaters agree to relinquish a percentage of ticket sales to them. And the percentages vary for each film.
With a big film, like Spiderman 2 for example, that percentage will be like 80% (or more) for the first couple weeks, then it will drop to 70, 60, 50 etc. A couple years ago Sony pissed off a lot of theater owners because they made them agree to give them almost 100% of Godzilla’s profits for the first two weeks, then a larger percentage than normal after (in other words, Sony knew that Godzilla sucked and that ticket sales would plummet after word of mouth spread).
Anyway, unless you’re a licensed theater that can sell tickets a movie studio isn’t going to ‘rent’ you jack.
Its theoretically possible, but this kind of thing is ‘the sport of kings’. There is only a small number of immensely powerful individuals who could make this happen.
Exactly. If you have to ask how to make it happen, it never will.
Now explain it to Hail Ants. 
Although I am not a projection expert, I am peripherally involved in the motion picture business, and I guesstimate that the basic equipment needed for a 35mm screening room (projector, screen, sound system) would cost at least $25,000 for used gear, and could easily run up to $100,000 or more if you wanted to go with first-class new gear.
Add to that the construction costs for modifying or adding onto your home that could easily be similar amounts, and you have a ballpark range of $50,000 - $250,000.
But after all that, as other folks here have said, your chances of actually getting a print are essentially nil.
Commasense, those costs are only valid if you want to fully replicate the theater experience.
If you just want to show a film, you need a 35 mm projector and a slide screen. I think they still put the sound on the film itself (to backup the digital track which no person could afford to play). You might have some trouble with anamorphic films. They don’t use the standard projector lenses. Everyone would be very tall and skinnyl
Everything you always wamted yo know about home theater hardware.
With used equipment you can show 35mm films for something in the 10K neighborhood. Not counting theater construction costs. Anf that is pricey. As already noted you need a soundproof booth because the projectors are noisy. You also need optically clear glass windows to project through. A little 6"x6" square can run hundreds of dollars, which is why the booth projection holes are so small.
But there is a vast range of prices. Note that “top-of-the-line” 16mm theatrical projectors can cost 15K I used to run Kinoton FP-30 projectors, which handle 16 or 35mm film. The ran about 10K each, and you need 2 if you don’t want to periodically stop the film to change reels. Ass another 5-10K for audio processors and speakers. There are quite a few audio formats out there, most needing different sensors added to the projector, as well as decoder/amplifiers.
If you want to be able to show any conceivable film format, you need a variety of lenses and little – well I can’t recall what they’re called – but they are small metal plates with very precisely sized rectangular holes for different aspect ratios. You need powered panels on all sides of the screen so you can “trim” the screen size to the image size. You could drop a quarter mil without trying very hard.
Can’t help you at all with the cost of renting 1st run films. The theater I worked was a not-for-profit that never,ever ran 1st run films. We rented “classics” and and documentaries, and “art” films. Typically the cost was $100-400, but this was more than 10 years ago, and we didn’t charge anything to the audience.
SmackFu: Are you perhaps thinking about 16mm projection? You’re right that in most cases (but not all) 35mm prints have analog optical sound tracks on them. But that has virtually no bearing on the costs involved in setting up 35mm projection in one’s home.
There are no desktop 35mm projectors like the 16mm projectors we old folks knew in school. They are large, refrigerator-sized machines. Apart from the console, the platter systems most use these days are about four or five feet in diameter. They’re noisy, so wouldn’t be practical to have the projector in the viewing room. And unlike those 16mm units, 35mm projectors don’t have speakers built into them, so they require a separate sound system.
Boyo Jim: thanks for your link. I may have been overstating things a little, but your numbers are roughly in line with mine. And I wasn’t including any screen masking that you mentioned. (Those plates for the projector are called apertures, Jim.)
This doesn’t provide hard, usable numbers to the OP, but I’d submit that if you became part owner in a small but legitimate movie theater, you’d be a substantial part of the way towards your goal.
If you choose the right theater, the investment pays for itself, and you just effectively got your request for free.