Theater companies are close to a $1 billion agreement with Hollywood studios to equip theaters to show digital movies, according to a group representing the exhibitors.

Digital Cinema Implementation Partners is negotiating with the studios and is working with JPMorgan Chase & Co. to finance the project, Travis Reid, the group’s chairman and chief executive officer, said Thursday in an interview with Bloomberg News.

Members Regal Entertainment Group, AMC Entertainment Holdings Inc. and Cinemark Holdings Inc. are trying to refit their more than 14,000 theaters in the U.S. and Canada. The cost of the conversion would be recouped from higher ticket prices exhibitors can charge for 3-D films.

Widespread conversion to digital means potential big growth for small companies offering enabling technology, such as Beverly Hills-based Real D, whose system allows a 2-D digital projector to show 3-D movies. It also means local studios from Walt Disney Co. to Paramount Pictures can begin to see some benefit from their investment in digital filmmaking.

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Bloomberg News

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Read earlier coverage of Real D by the

Los Angeles Business Journal

.