Noticed anything different around Ragtag Cinema lately? One thing’s for certain: the robots are invading, and they won’t stop until they’ve taken over every movie theater in order to move each one forward to the digital age.

Ragtag is just one among many movie theaters across the nation that must make the switch from 35-millimeter projectors to digital projectors by the end of 2013. The reason? Major film distribution companies will simply stop distributing the film that theaters such as Ragtag need to project.

This is why the “robots” are coming at Ragtag, even in movie trailers: to raise awareness about the move into the future and major changes that are to come at the cinema. Ragtag is using robots to signify the digital change and how moviegoers might consume “mass-produced multiplex entertainment” rather than quality films.

And the shift to digital won’t be cheap. For Ragtag’s larger and smaller theaters, the cost will total around $160,000. So far, the theater has received about $80,000 in donations for the new equipment – in other words, they’re halfway there.

Projectionists at Ragtag have said they plan to keep the “old” 35-mm projectors, though. From those, patrons can expect special screenings of older films.