(Daniel J. Wakin, The New York Times) New York City Ballet has joined the corps of cultural institutions presenting performances on the big screen. The company said on Thursday that its Dec. 13 performance of “George Balanchine’s The Nutcracker” will be transmitted live in high definition to more than 500 movie theaters around the country. In a statement, the company’s executive director, Katherine E. Brown, said City Ballet hoped it would be the “first of many” such transmissions.

A City Ballet neighbor at Lincoln Center, the Metropolitan Opera, pioneered cinema broadcasts of cultural events five years ago and has built an audience of several hundred thousand around the world for each transmission. Other opera, ballet and theater companies and orchestras have started the practice.