By David Vitrano

L’Observateur

LAPLACE – Residents of the River Parishes will no longer have to drive to Jefferson Parish to see the latest 3-D movies thanks to a recent upgrade at Hollywood Cinema 7 in LaPlace.

“We had basically old-time projectors. We’re switching to digital and 3-D,” said Manager Bridget Arceneaux.

The movie theater, the only one in the River Parishes, just installed two new, state-of-the-art digital projectors, which, with the use of an attachment, can also be used to show 3-D movies.

“That’s the market trend right now,” said theater owner Vishu Mandava. “Everybody is driving to Elmwood and Clearview.”

The advantages to the new projectors are many. Moviegoers will notice better sound and picture quality.

Referring to a test run of the projectors, Arceneaux said, “It sounded like they were having a concert right next door.”

Those running the show will also notice a difference, however. With the old style projectors, movies consisted of multiple rolls of film that have to be hand-fed through the projector. The new projectors, which are much smaller than their predecessors, run digital versions of films held on something akin to a jump drive for a personal computer.

“With these, you just basically push a button,” said Arceneaux.

The new format also means there will be no more missing scenes or damaged film to contend with.

Such upgrades do not come cheap, however. Mandava said each projector costs about $100,000. The 3-D add-on is an additional $35,000.

Of course, for the time being the theater will still be running analog movies on five of its screens. Arceneaux said moviegoers can see which films are offered in digital by looking for the notation on the movie listings, which are on page 3A of today’s L’Observateur.

Mandava said he expects to install two more digital projectors by Mardi Gras 2012.

And these are not the only upgrades on the horizon for the cinema. Next month, Mandava will be installing stadium seating in three of its theaters, with a second phase involving the other four theaters on the slate for 2012.

These upgrades are just the latest in series of renovations Mandava has brought to the LaPlace facility. He said when he purchased the old Silver Cinema, it was very run down, and he redid just about everything before reopening it as Hollywood Cinema 7 in 2009.

Mandava also owns Hollywood Cinema 9 in Kenner.