If you look at the graph below you will see that the percentage of revenue from 3D movies has drastically declined. Why are movie goers shunning 3D? Well there appears to be two factors. Firstly, 3D movies are noticeably dimmer, film critic Roger Ebert has declared 3D movies are ‘noticeably darker than standard 2D’ and Hollywood golden boy Christoper Nolan agrees,
“On a technical level, it’s fascinating,” Nolan said of 3D, “but on an experiential level, I find the dimness of the image extremely alienating.”
Now pay attention: Here comes the science bit. Movie screen luminance is measured in units called ‘foot-lamberts’ with your standard movie weighing at around 14 foot-lamberts. Lenny Lipton, a pioneer in the area of projection noted that ‘you lose half your light, because half the light goes to one eye and half goes to the other.’ In other words a 14 foot-lambert movie is half as bright as a standard movie. Lipton comments,
“Avatar generally screened at about four-and-a-half foot-lamberts; other films are as low as two or three.”
The other factor to consider is the price. 3D movie screenings are usually at least 25% more expensive than 2D movies. Whilst movie goers are happy to pay for the experience for an ‘event’ such as Avatar they are less willing to pay the premium for a standard Saturday night popcorn flick.
So what does that mean for 3D gaming? Only time will tell but if 3D movies go the way of the dinosaur then TV manufacturers are going to have a very hard job selling expensive TVs just for gaming. Michael Pachter recently commented that 3D is just a ‘fad’, what do you think?
Source: The Wrap
rossthebassist
to be quite frank i think its more to do with the fact that when i went to see avatar in 3d at my odeon it cost me £8 and i got my glasses free.
when i went to see shrek in 3d it cost me £10 and i had to buy my glasses. the cinemas have killed it ahead of its time, its true i dont want to see everything in 3d, but the cinemas are taking the p with the pricing.
teflon
I reckon it’s more to do with that not everyone wants to watch animated films. Avatar was a big movie largely because it was in 3D, but also because it blended live action with CGI to such a huge extent. (Definitely nothing to do with the plot).
But obviously, it’s a massive PITA to shoot a full film with real people in 3D, CGI or no, so it’ll be a loong time before 3D is the norm. And of the films on that list, the only one I’d really go to watch at all (let alone in 3D) is Toy Story 3. Ironically a film from a studio who’s 3D is far more a subtle affair than Dreamworks’
Lastly, what about proliferation of 3D to cinemas? I doubt any film since Avatar has had quite as many showings be in 3D.
icuyesido
A good way for Sony to keep it going would be to start making affordable 3D TV’s, People don’t want to pay £1500 for a 37″ TV considering the limited content at the moment. What needs to happen pretty sharpish is that people need to be able to afford 3D TV’s and there needs to be content to justify the buy, although saying that, say both of them things do happen, companies like HMV will start charging £25 for a (True) 3D version of a film (not them cardboard glasses versions) so either way 3D as a concept is screwed. Plus how are we going to wear our headsets as well as the goggles, eh, how?
icuyesido
Oh I forgot, I started to ramble. I went to see Avatar at the Imax, it truly was amazing but after half an hour I stopped noticing I was watching it in 3D. Afterwards I thought, what is the point of it all, maybe that was just me. If I can forget when I’m watching it in 3D on a screen the size of four double deckers what about when I watch it in my home, it won’t look no where near as amazing and I probably would only notice the 3D for a few minutes, and these are the reason why I won’t be buying a 3D TV nor understand (unless your rich) why anyone else would.
djhsecondnature
Surely if you forgot then it was spot on. If you’re noticing it then it’s done wrong. Not realising means you’re fully immersed.
icuyesido
No, If I forgot I was watching 3D what’s the point?
Danza Di Fuoco
Never liked the idea of 3D in the first place….
JKL6939
I definitely think 3D is declining, because nobody wants to wear those funky glasses.
xdarkmagician
3D isn’t a fad, it’s been around for over 100 years. From the hand held viewers of the last century or the red-green glasses of yesterday. 3D has always had it’s setbacks but the desire for perfect 3D will not stop, and whenever a setback like poor illumination is discovered someone else finds a solution. In 10 years time 3D will be as normal as color was in the 70’s
Also the graph doesn’t take movie quality into account.
xdarkmagician
Also theres only so many 3D theaters, When avatar came out it played on every 3D screen because there was alot of hype, but more importantly it was the only 3D movie out at that time. Now there’s still the same numbers of 3D screens (or slightly a few more) but there’s alot more 3D movies so run times have to be reduced to fit more 3D films into the theaters schedule.
masoke
As one of the 10% who can’t really see it I don’t care either way.
The glasses are the biggest stumbling point for it – it isn’t the £1500 TVs as much as the fact that the glasses are £70 each. At the cinema, it isn’t the £8 ticket for a two hour film (£4 per hour, not including food/drink. Compare that to a game), but the extra £2 to buy the silly glasses on top just doesn’t make it worthwhile.
jacklum
Isn’t this analysis a bit simplistic? Last year, you had Avatar, the highest grossing movie of all-time, so, chances are, anything after that is going to show a decline (until Cameron makes another movie presumably). It also leaves out Alice In Wonderland – a 3D movie which is the highest grossing 2010 release (worldwide). Toy Story 3’s total box-office take has easily surpassed the two previous movies shown on the graph, so is poor evidence of a ‘decline’. The Last Airbender got terrible reviews, so people probably stayed away due to a perceived lack of quality rather than any backlash against 3D. Then there’s Despicable Me which has actually been hugely profitable when you consider that its production budget is actually very low compared to the other movies mentioned.
Also you have many more movies opening in 3D so they’re going to be competing against each other, therefore their individual percentage share of the box-office take is not a good measure of the success, or lack thereof, of 3D movies.
jacklum
Hold on, is the graph the total % for 3D movies that week, or the individual % take for the movie at the bottom? I still don’t see how Airbender, even if combined with other 3D movies on release, gets 56% when it opened in the same week as Twilight: Eclipse (a 2D movie which made $30 mill more than it that weekend).
Tuffcub
Its not the total takings its the percentage in 3d. Avatar made a billion, 710,000 of that was from 3D – 71%. My madeupmove made $10, and $7.10 is from 3d, so gets same as Avatar, %71
jacklum
Oh, that makes more sense. Still, they left out quite a few 3D releases so I’m still left wondering if their selection skewed the results somehow.
Tuffcub
Agreed things like Alice In Wonderland are missing, but Shrek, Toy Story and Last Airbender are big films.
Nauraph
I think you could say that Avatar 3D views where extremely high.
I’ve spoken to many people who seen it three times or more. And many kids are dragging their parents along because they “must see that movie in 3D”
BrendanCalls
3d will die out in cinemas. I for one will be glad. I dislike it very much and it was the worst thing about my trip to see Toy Story.
BrendanCalls
I wasn’t gonna rant but screw it. For one the price of watching 3d is a joke, Its £10 to watch Toy Story 3d at my local Odeon, £10 effing quid. £40 quid for a family of 4 to see Toy Story 3m that last 2 hours, not including any dinner or drinks before or after then popcorn or sweets and drinks
The when I get in there and actually watch the damn film, its so blatantly 3D that it totally destroys my immersion. Spears flying through the air towards my face just distract me from where the spear is actually heading. When the spear, football or whatever else comes flying out the screen then disappears it just reminds you that your in a cinema.
The glasses are a joke, they’re distractingly uncomfortable and are just huge black marks around your peripheral vision, and anyone who know about Biology of the eye will tell you that the peripheral vision of the eye is much much more sensitive than your central attentional vision.
3d with glasses is a gimmick, 3d without glasses is the only way that 3d cinema will ever work.
Cinema is dying at this rate not just 3D and its dying because people can’t afford to go, and all that serves is to drive the rate of privacy. Ive been offered Toy Story 3 twice already on DVD, but i wanted to see it at Cinema.
When its more economically viable to watch movies at the cinema, that is when this rampant piracy of movies will end