Get Ready to Pay More For 3D, Effective Immediately

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The 3D-cinema boom is, at this moment, as hot as any fad to ever hit Hollywood. It sounds like kind of an intellectual flatline -- perhaps even a bit of stating the obvious -- until you realize the implications, from bleeding-edger Jeff Katzenberg pouting about too much competition to Michael Bay being the lone voice of reason in a race to three-dimensionalize everything. But in all this media hyperspeed, expect viewers to witness the most dramatic consequences starting tomorrow -- before they even enter the multiplex.

And you can thank exhibitors for this one: According to one analyst's survey of 10 major-market multiplexes, those theaters are hiking 3D ticket prices by an average of 8 percent this weekend. Make it 10 percent for IMAX 3D, and tack on another 2 percent for children's tickets for the same format. Boring old 2D is going up as well, around 4 percent for adults and 2 percent for kids. The same analyst told the LAT that "about one-third of the 10 percent rise in box-office revenue so far this year is due to higher prices for 3-D movies, and two-thirds is due to higher attendance."

This is maybe too little too late for theaters who bristled at Disney's window-narrowing strategy for the mega-blockbuster Alice in Wonderland, but they have a good shot at making up for it with How to Train Your Dragon and Clash of the Titans opening back-to-back over the next two weekends. Meanwhile, expect Bay's phone to ring any minute now, with DreamWorks execs asking if he's changed his mind yet about making Transformers 3 in 2D. In the end, though, as evidenced by the brilliant photo accompanying the LAT, there really is only one question worth answering in this whole complex schema: What does Wim Wenders think?

· 3-D movie boom leading to 3-D ticket price hikes [LAT]



Comments

  • Martini Shark says:

    What if I can get my company's optical provider to cover the cost of the 3-D glasses, what would my deductable then become for a movie ticket?

  • SunnydaZe says:

    It's blurry plus you have to wear glasses which might give you cholera and a headache>
    250% increase!!!

  • Zane says:

    I be impress when they can make 3d movies without the need of glasses, but I'm seeing and hearing is same stuff I heard in the 80's and 90's, I dont know about everyone else but it's friggin annoying to wear 3d glasses all the time, specially if you dont have a good seat to watch them, ah yea 3d movies only work on your tv only if you have a 3d tv, and of course needing glasses, I mean 3rd movies dont show up in 3rd on hd tvs, I know I tried, anyways be nice to see what i call tru d being able to see and watch a movie either at home or in the theater without those goofy 3d glasses.