Up to 15,000 additional screens slated to get digital 3-D

posted by CSWalczak on September 24, 2009 at 7:40 am

At a “3-D Entertainment Summit” held in Los Angeles on September 16, major exhibitors were heartened to hear that financing was being made available to equip thousands of additional screens for digital 3-D films over the next five years. Currently, there are about 2,700 screens equipped for digital 3-D exhibition, a number which exhibitors believe seriously limits their profits from the increasing number of 3-D films studios are releasing. Still, some theater owners were skeptical that that the number of 3-D venues would increase as rapidly as projected.

To date there are only 2,700 3-D screens in North America, limiting the potential returns that studios can reap from the higher ticket prices from 3-D releases (moviegoers typically must pay an extra $3 to see 3-D films). With the new financing, that number is expected to grow by 4,000 by the of the year, or nearly 10% of all screens in North America.

Here’s the rest of the story from the L.A. Times.

Comments (6)

markp
markp on September 24, 2009 at 8:27 am

Same old boring crap. Digital, digital, digital, ra, ra, ra, big deal.

BobFurmanek
BobFurmanek on September 24, 2009 at 4:18 pm

I’m on your side of this issue. But, in the case of 3-D, digital makes sense. There’s no chance of operator screw up when they don’t have to worry about lens adjustments, convergence, etc.

moviebuff82
moviebuff82 on September 24, 2009 at 5:20 pm

But what happens if the computer goes haywire?

John Fink
John Fink on September 25, 2009 at 5:52 am

Now they just have to worry about making GOOD* movies in 3-D. Surely there’s other uses for it besides animation, horror and concert films.

*Up and Coraline are excluded from this rant – but Final Destination…come on, it would have been crap in 2-D, I think the New York Times said it’s plot was about as complex as a text message – I couldn’t agree more. Same for the unwatchable, boring piece of garbage that was touted as 3-Ds next revolution, Monsters Vs. Aliens. This is why Pixar is successful, they create rich, well told stories with amazing detail that connect on every emotional level – if all films were as good as Pixar’s, people would be going to the movies twice a week. With that said the 3-D really didn’t do much to improve on Up. As for Coraline, it was the most innovative use of 3-D, playing with dimensions and telling a very strange (but extremely entertaining) story.

Giles
Giles on October 21, 2009 at 5:25 pm

when my neighborhood theatre – AMC Mazza Galleria get’s a 3D system I’ll be REAL happy – AMC get your butt in gear, Regal is fulfilling it’s promise… AMC’s committment and implementation is seriousily lagging.

Giles
Giles on October 23, 2009 at 1:43 pm

well… a Sony 4K systme DID debut this week at Mazza for ‘Saw VI’ – it is rumoured that Auditorium 4 will get a 3D system up and running come mid-November

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