Kodak pauses film production for factory upgrades to help meet demand

Eastman Kodak has temporarily paused all film production. The news comes as part of a shutdown in November allowing the company to upgrade and modernize its Rochester, New York factory, according to a report by Kosmo Foto. The decision was announced by Kodak CEO Jim Continenza during the company’s Q3 2024 quarterly earnings call on November 13th. The improvements will help Kodak keep up with an increased demand for film.

“Our film sales have increased on motion picture and in still film and other films. So on film, we’re doing a shutdown in November, total shutdown,” Continenza said during the earnings call. “We’ve continued to invest in our manufacturing process, while we need to shut down completely to bring light into the dark, right? Film is made in the dark.”

The factory improvements aren’t expected to affect the availability of Kodak film as the company increased production in the months leading up to the shutdown, according to Kosmo Foto. “In November, we will be modernizing the plant, putting more investment within that, which has also caused us to use more cash in the quarter to build up inventories while we do this,” said Continenza.

In 2020, Kodak announced that it had more than doubled its production of still photography films between 2015 and 2019 following years of declining demand as a result of the advent of digital photography, according to Kosmo Foto. During an earnings call in 2023, Continenza affirmed Kodak’s commitment to “manufacturing film as long as there is demand from the filmmakers and photographers worldwide.”

It’s not just Hollywood filmmakers like Christopher Nolan (who shot Oppenheimer on large format color and black-and-white film created by Kodak) who continue to embrace shooting with film. Gen Z, who grew up with digital cameras, have embraced the unique aesthetics of analog photography, as well as the process, which requires photographers to be more intentional and deliberate with framing choices and camera settings.