Ah and the part I left out was quality control. When prints are struck and sent to cinemas they obviously have to adhere to a strict quality control so that all the customers that see the show have a consistent experience. This isn’t a universal truth through, for instance patrons in the UK saw Star Wars on IB Technicolor, while those in the US saw it on Kodak Eastman prints. But within the UK or the US the distributor would want all patrons to have as consistent a show as possible. There’s no guarantee of quality control with 16mm unless it was made for broadcast or another specific purpose where it would be important.

I hope that made sense. 😃