Cinema is on the ropes. So much so that a cabal of top Hollywood moguls are putting their faith in a very old idea -- one usually dismissed as a fad -- to save the day.

"The economic model of the film business is broken," Oscar-winning director Steven Soderbergh recently told a panel discussion on digital film distribution entitled "Downloading at a Theater Near You." He had obviously thumbed through the bad news from the U.S. box office: Total revenues fell 6.2 percent in 2005 compared to 2004, and theaters sold 8.9 percent fewer tickets than the previous year. People have begun to desert movie theaters, lured away by digital piracy and the anytime-anywhere appeal of new media. While movie studios got all their revenues from cinema ticket sales in 1948, by 2003 home entertainment provided more than 80 percent. Even Soderbergh decided to release his last movie, "Bubble," simultaneously in cinemas, on DVD and cable TV.

Technology is menacing traditional cinema but it could also save it from disaster, says James Cameron, author of the most successful blockbuster of all time, 1997's "Titanic," which earned $1.8 billion worldwide. "I love movies and I love to watch them on the big screen," Cameron told last year's National Association of Broadcasters' Digital Cinema Summit. "I'm not going to make movies for people to watch on their cellphones. To me, that's an abomination."