How much a second-hand portable 35 m.m. projector costed in the '80's?

[maxhifi]

Have you ever seen the inner workings of a 35mm based theatre? It's quite a big collection of equipment. First of all, you need two projectors, because a 2000 foot reel gets you only about 20 minutes of run time. Movies usually come on 5 or more such reels, and you need to have a projectionist seamlessly switch between projectors as the movie plays.

Speaking of projectors, fire code requires all film projection rooms for over 16mm film need to have separate ventilation to the outdoors, and be fire proof.

Then there's the cost of film, a single 35mm movie would cost thousands to buy, and that's if you can get it - most were just leased to theatres.

Basically what it all comes down to, is 35mm theatres in homes are restricted to the super rich movie executives and actors in California, who can spend half a million to build the theatre and then hire a projectionist to run the whole thing, or extremely resourceful hobbyists.

16mm is much more practical at home, but it was also more common in institutional/educational settings. The reality is that video brought movies at home to the masses in a way film never could. Also keep in mind that running film means knowing how to handle and splice film, and takes a certain amount of skill. It is not plug and play like video.