On Sunday afternoon, you decide to catch a movie, so you head back to Kinepolis, where you have spent the last three nights.

Thanks to digital satellite technology, Belgian cinema chain Kinepolis has been bringing the public a whole lot more than movies lately. Its Opera in the Cinema programme, which finished its second season last month, brought 43,000 people to its 16 cinemas in Belgium and France to watch The Met's opera performances onscreen live via satellite. (The time difference makes their matinee shows quite convenient to view in Europe.)

Now Kinepolis is launching Theatre in the Cinema, a series of four performances by the National Theatre. On 25 June , all its Belgian cinemas will project a high-definition recording live from London of the great Helen Mirren starring as Phèdre, the anguished queen who falls in love with her stepson, with dire consequences.

This autumn, you'll also find Voice Male at the Movies, when the Flemish a cappella group Voice Male performs live in Kinepolis cinemas across Flanders, in front of a screen of digital images. This follows up on last year's Symfollies, when the cinema chain projected the kid's TV show of the same name, accompanied by a live orchestra and performances - a combination of movie, music and theatre.

Since when did going to the cinema mean not seeing a movie?

"We have to innovate; we cannot stand still," says Myriam Dessonville of Kinepolis' communications department. "It's very important to keep an eye on the evolution of entertainment and to keep diversifying."

Invention, as they say, is born of necessity: cinemas have to compete with DVD copying, in-cinema pirating and illegal personal downloading. Kinepolis will not release exact figures, but claims that profits fluctuate from year to year and, with the opening and closing of new cinemas, it's impossible to say if admissions have been seriously affected by these new technologies.

"It's not easy right now; I'm not going to pretend it is," Dessonville says. "But in the past, the press asked if the film industry was going to implode because of the onset of television. Then it was video, then DVD. Now you have downloads." Her point is clear: the film industry does not give up quite so easily, and, if you put it on a graph, there is no big downward spiral in film-going.

But keeping up with that modern public and new technologies has always been the big film industry challenge and a top priority for Kinepolis, a group that is responsible for the megaplex that, when it opened in Brussels 21 years ago, was the first of its kind and has been a world-wide standard bearer ever since. It is now a leader in digital projection technology.

Although the days of gigantic reels of film being transported from cinema to cinema are not quite gone, they eventually will be, says Dessonville. More and more films are being shot and projected digitally, and Kinepolis is not going to be a cinema chain that, when the time comes, has to struggle to catch up with the technology. Although she won't say how much, a big portion of the group's technology budget goes towards digital and 3D projection equipment.

"When a film is digital, we receive a hard disk and then we have special key codes that we use to be able to project them," she explains. "That's very different from the traditional film reels, which are very heavy and costly to ship. Those reels present so many logistical and production costs for producers and distributors. Over the long term, digital is much more cost effective." In fact, it's also environmentally effective: film stock and metal canisters would no longer be needed.

"By the end of this year, about 80% of all our projects in Belgium will be digital," says Dessonville. Many film productions, however, still use film stock, so Kinepolis is also retaining their traditional film projectors. Most Flemish films, for instance, are still shot on film. "It will be a few more years until everything goes digital," Dessonville explains. "We're in an intermediate period."

But Kinepolis is already thinking beyond the intermediate. As both Opera and Theatre in the Cinema show, you don't even need a hard disk to project onto a screen in another part of the world. "In the future, it will all be done by satellite," states Dessonville.

That would mean that, with the push of a button, the film you came to see would be projected from a central location, anywhere in the world. The same is true with the new "alternative content", like opera and theatre, except it is projected at the same time it is being performed. If you go to see Phèdre, for instance, at Kinepolis on 25 June, you will be seeing the same performance as the live audience in London. But on a screen instead of a stage.

"We are a strong believer in alternative content," says Dessonville. "It's a strategic way to reach as many target groups as possible." Bringing in these diversified target groups is one goal Kinepolis hopes to fulfil by offering live via-satellite sports, concerts, theatre and opera programming. This allows the company to appeal to more people than just movie-goers. More people equals more revenue.

"If you organise a U2 concert in 3D one day and then a football final the following day, it's a whole other audience - and a totally different atmosphere."

Kinepolis continues to experiment with live events. They just completed a pilot project in their cinemas in Valencia and Madrid where they combined 3D and live satellite coverage of the French Open on screen. "Cameras positions around the court were able to make 3D images," explains Dessonville. "It's very complex, but it works. Technically, it was perfect, and it was amazing."

www.kinepolis.be

Theatre in the Cinema

It's a chance to see London's National Theatre, but is it as good as the real thing?

Over the next few months, all Kinepolis cinemas in Belgium will project live via satellite performances by London's prestigious National Theatre. These four one-night only events kick off with a production of Phèdre starring Helen Mirren on 25 June.

The National Theatre is following the lead of New York's Metropolitan Opera, which has now transmitted two of its seasons to hundreds of cinemas across the world with the technical ability to screen high-definition satellite images. At Kinepolis cinemas in Belgium and France, 43,000 people came to see Opera in the Cinema.

Lovers of live performances, such as theatre, opera and dance have mixed views as to the benefits of this kind of event broadcasting. After all, don't we spend enough time in front of a screen both at work and home? Live performances are meant to put you in touch with the performers in a wholly more human way. Do we really want to experience life as homogenously as viewing all our cultural entertainment on a television or movie screen? Opera singers have even complained that they are worried about the future of their voice training if the priority becomes voice projection outside of their performance hall.

But, then, there are advantages. People around the world get to see the Met and the National Theatre for a fraction of the normal cost. Those who might not venture to the opera, might just discover it in the more casual atmosphere of their local cinema. And, regardless of the fact that it's a screen, it does get you out of your house and part of an audience that socialises before and after performances.

Helen Mirren herself was called upon to give a statement about Theatre in the Cinema. And, though she is, of course, very positive, she does refer to it as "an experiment" - not a given: "This is a grand new adventure for the National Theatre. We want our work, after all, to be seen by as many people as possible. And for this one night, our audience will be all over the UK and all over the world. And that's exciting. Broadcasting theatre to live audiences is a great experiment, and Nick Hytner [the director] and I are both really looking forward to creating this unique event."

Further National Theatre productions screening in Belgium are Shakespeare's All's Well That Ends Well; Nation, based on the book by Terry Pratchett; and The Habit of Art, a new play by Alan Bennett starring Michael Gambon.

www.nationaltheatre.org.uk