Since being founded almost 20 years ago, Kodak Alaris is now being shut down and integrated into Eastman Kodak. Eastman was the one manufacturing the film while Alaris, for many years, was the one distributing and selling it. But as of recent years, Eastman had started selling the film directly to stores. With Alaris now gone, are the prices of film going to go down?
Alaris had been a big part of why Kodak film was so expensive to begin with. But with the company now gone, Eastman has taken on some of the debt that the company had. That means that the price of film could stay stagnant for a while until those debts are paid off. After that, the prices are likely to drop.
But there’s a big problem there, film is sold at something called MSRP: which stands for manufacturers suggested retail price. That means that Eastman Kodak could sell them film to a store for $3 a roll but the store could charge you $12 a roll. That’s not an uncommon thing to happen, in fact.
However, something else has been happening in the world since the pandemic. All the camera manufacturers have been working on their own e-commerce websites and even finding ways to cut the retailers out of the picture. Instead, they’re working on direct relationships with their customers. So what’s stopping Eastman Kodak from doing this too? Obviously, the brand needs more money. And on top of that, brands like even CineStill and others have started to sell some of Kodak’s film.
With the current state of the world, this would probably be the most logical solution. Due to things like Trump’s tariffs, the prices of film have gone up. If the film is sold in a store, then tarrifs are paid along with a markup. But if the film is sold through Kodak, the consumer only has to deal with tariffs.
This is genuinely one of the best things that could happen due to Kodak Alaris shutting down. On top of that, Eastman Kodak would send shockwaves through the entire industry as other brands rely on Kodak for film and their own experiments to be sold.
What’s stopping Eastman Kodak, for example, from selling its own cinema film without the remjet layer to compete with CineStill and Candido?
One thing is for sure, we’re about to enter some very fascinating times.
This article is an April Fool’s Joke for 2026. You should take it very, very seriously. Want to know the crazier thing? A human wrote this.