The resort's only movie palace will end its era of projecting ribbons of 35mm film in front of a powerful light on to a screen at 24 frames per second when staff dismantle and remove the three large projectors and associated bulky equipment to replace it all with the latest in digital projection technology.
The final motion picture to be shown on film in the cinema will be Kick-Ass 2 on Sunday, September 8, at 6.45pm.
Then the cinema will close to the public.
Reading will take the opportunity of the rare closure to upgrade its theatre foyer.
A single film projector will be saved for display, while the other two will be dismantled for transport to an Invercargill cinema.
The Queenstown cinema will be made digitally 3-D and 2-D capable in one auditorium at a time.
It will reopen with its debut digital film, action movie White House Down, starring Channing Tatum, on Wednesday, September 11, at 6pm.
All three cinemas will be digitally refitted.
They will be open in time to present the Sandra Bullock comedy The Heat on Saturday, September 14, which will be an R18 night, with glasses of Champagne or soft drinks offered to adult patrons to mark the occasion.
Cinema complex manager Rebekah Moore said 3-D projection capability meant a range of movies could be shown in Queenstown for the first time.
Animated family films The Smurfs 2, Planes and Turbo, plus One Direction: This is Us, Metallica Through the Never and the Sir Edmund Hillary film Beyond the Edge were among the coming attractions.
''There's something for everyone,'' Mrs Moore said.
''It will definitely be a clearer, crisper visual movie experience.''
