why can't technicolor be used anymore

Technicolor as a process for making color films is not used anymore mainly because it was extremely complex, expensive, and was overtaken by simpler, cheaper color film and later digital imaging systems.

What Technicolor Was

Technicolor (in the classic Hollywood sense) refers to a family of color motion-picture processes, especially the famous “three‑strip Technicolor” used from the 1930s–1950s for movies like The Wizard of Oz and Gone with the Wind.

It used special cameras, special printing machines, and dye‑transfer printing to create very saturated, stable color images.

Why It Fell Out Of Use

Several practical reasons made the classic Technicolor process obsolete:

• It needed a huge, heavy three‑strip camera that recorded three black‑and‑white negatives at once (for red, green, blue), which was bulky and hard to use on location.

• Production costs were high: you had to pay for specialized cameras, extra film, and complex lab work, so studios preferred cheaper single‑strip color stocks once they became good enough.

• The process required a dedicated industrial infrastructure (labs, printers, technicians) that was gradually shut down as demand moved to newer technologies.

Rise Of Cheaper Color Film

From the 1950s onward, single‑strip color film like Eastmancolor took over, because it:

• Used regular cameras and a single color negative, making shooting far easier and cheaper for studios.

• Allowed more flexible shooting conditions (lighter cameras, location work) and integrated better with evolving lab and projection standards.

As these newer color stocks improved in color quality and stability, the unique advantages of Technicolor’s dye‑transfer prints no longer justified the extra cost and complexity.

Digital Imaging Finished The Job

By the late 20th and early 21st century, digital cinematography and digital intermediate workflows became the norm.

Once color grading, VFX, and distribution went mostly digital, there was almost no economic reason to maintain the specialized optical‑chemical Technicolor printing pipeline.

Technicolor Today (Name vs. Process)

The Technicolor company evolved into a broader post‑production and VFX group rather than a provider of the old three‑strip process.

Even before its recent financial collapse and shutdown of major operations, the famous dye‑transfer film process had long been discontinued and survived only as a stylistic reference or emulation in digital color grading.

TL;DR:
Classic three‑strip Technicolor can’t realistically be “used” anymore because the cameras, labs, and dye‑transfer printers it depended on were phased out as cheaper single‑strip color film and later digital workflows took over; the industrial ecosystem that made Technicolor possible simply no longer exists.

Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.