Physical media is making a comeback in an age when ownership is taking on new meaning. People are flocking to portals to the past, with newly opened video rental stores, vintage media shops, classic toy stores as well as live events that present on tube televisions.

Part of this wave of appreciation for older technology has local cinemas projecting on film. Phoenix Theatres in North Olmstead is one location trying to capitalize on this nostalgia by presenting movies on 70mm film.

Phoenix is an appropriate name for the movie theater in the Great Northern Mall. Formerly a Regal cinema that shuttered in 2023 after the COVID-19 pandemic, the Phoenix rose from its ashes just a year later, part of a chain of theaters based in Michigan.

While they have digital 4K series projectors, the cinema purchased two vintage 70mm film projectors to offer moviegoers options.

The advantages of digital are clear. There’s no physical medium like reels of film to manage. A projectionist can just press a button to start the show and walk away, never having to monitor any moving parts or complex framing and focus.

But Isaiah Champe, manager of the Phoenix in North Olmstead and one of the lead projectionists, said something is lost in that process and seeing a movie on film is a different experience.

Ygal Kaufman/Ideastream Public Media

Film running through the projector is much more complicated and fragile than the digital projector's files.