The number of studios involved seems to grow every day and 3-D is one step away. Five Hollywood studios have agreed to contribute to the more than $1 billion plan to switch out-of-date 35-mm film projectors with more advanced devices technology in approximately 20,000 theaters across North America.

The deal was made public on Wednesday by Digital Cinema Implementation Partners, an association of some of the most important theater chains. Furthermore, it has been announced that the rollout in the United States and Canada is scheduled to kick off early next year and that around half of all the film screens in North America are due to be upgraded.

In order to lend a hand in balancing the costs, which go up to $70,000 per screen, the five studios intend to pay DCIP almost $1,000 per movie screen, more or less the same sum it costs them to produce and transport a celluloid film copy.

Implementing digital equipment in theaters is the biggest step one can make towards the technological upgrade required to project 3-D movies.

In spite of the fact that approximately two dozen 3-D productions are scheduled to be released in theaters through 2010, only 873 theaters in North America (1,264 3-D screens) are able to show such movies, according to The Walt Disney Co.

The five studios that agreed to help pay for the rollout are Viacom Inc.’s Paramount Pictures, News Corp.’s Twentieth Century Fox, General Electric Co.’s Universal Pictures, Lions Gate Entertainment Corp. and The Walt Disney Co.