When the blue-skinned do-gooder hippies of Avatar were unleashed on movie screens last December, nearly three quarters of its opening weekend revenue came from people watching it in 3D. Since then, just about every major action or animated movie has been released in 3D, but often to diminishing results.
So far in 2010, the amount of opening weekend revenue coming from 3D screens has been trending downward. Alice In Wonderland saw percentages close to Avatar’s level, but by the time Toy Story 3 hit screens, only 60% of opening weekend sales came from 3D tickets. That number dropped even further for the July release of Despicable Me, where 45% of people who saw it on the first weekend chose to see it in 3D.
With more than 60 3D movies slated for release in the foreseeable future, studios and exhibitors are pish-poshing the idea that people are tiring of paying $4-5 extra per ticket… or wearing uncomfortable 3D glasses… or watching movies where the 3D was done as a shoddy post-production afterthought.
Says a dude from the National Association of Theater Owners, right after he tried to upsell you to the Super Value Snack Deal, “It does not show that fewer people are choosing 3D… The audience for 3D is growing, right along with the 3D screen count.
Similarly, the president of distribution for Warner Bros. wants everyone to know the sky isn’t falling. “You can’t look at just three or four movies in a row and say it’s over,” he explains, saying that the reason family films like Toy Story 3 and Despicable Me aren’t doing Avatar-like percentages is that “It’s just hard for kids under 6 years old to keep the glasses on.”
An unnamed executive at an exhibition chain sums up the problem pretty well: “Pricing and crappy content isn’t going to permanently railroad 3D… but it isn’t going to help it, either.”
What are your feelings on 3D? Who wants to go see Step Up 3D with me this weekend? Fine… I’ll just go on my own.
3D at the Box Office: Down, Down, Down [TheWrap via LA Times]
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I also wanted to point out the lack of 3D screen issue.
In our medium sized town, we have 2 theaters. A Mom and Pop and a Cinemark.
We don’t like going to the Mom and Pop because it is small and crappy.
The Cinemark has had only 1 3D screen. Toy story was still playing on it when we went to see Despicable ME, so we had to see that in 2D.
Last weekend as I was buying my tickets for my 4 year olds to see Cats and Dogs, I noticed that now had 3 3D screens. This will make a difference in the amount of movies we see in 3D because the option is there now.
I am totally unimpressed with 3D. I saw Avatar and a couple of other movies with it and I just felt like a good movie should be able to stand on it’s own without kitchy crap to boost sales. I also always end up with a nasty migrane and a barfy feeling about 1/2 way in.
Curious what part of this post triggers the “related posts” to all be about moldy drug plants
The problem is theaters still charging more money to see the 3D version than the 2D version. When they bost cost the same (as at my local theater), then the 3D versions _seem_ (to my eye, without having polled or canvassed movie-goers to verify the impression) to get more viewers than the 2D versions.
You can paint shit took look like a steak, but it’s still shit.
How dumb are the people at consumerist? Your graph has little to do with people getting tired of 3-D and more to do with the movies progressively sucking more than the last. As a t-com graduate I can tell you that without a doubt 3-D is here to stay and soon(within a few years) most movies will be shot in 3-D.
Rarely choose 3D..Saw Toy Story 3 in regular version and loved it. I haven’t seen Avatar at all, don’t shoot me just no interest. My husband hates it though, it gives him a headache, so it’s just not worth it for us. I did take the kids to see How to Train Your Dragon in 3D and thought the effects were horrible. The kids complained, too. They just didn’t think it felt 3D enough.
3d movies piss me off. My local theatre charges $5 extra per ticket for 3D, and if a movie is available in 3D, they only offer it in 3D. The next closest theatre is an hour away.
I’ve been disappointed in the quality of the 3d movies I’ve seen. In Alice it was barely noticable, the first 2 toy story movies I could hardly tell.
I went to see inception this week and was extremely happy to find out it wasn’t in 3d.
3d is just a gimmick it does not make a movie better just look better if it was shot using the 3d cams, otherwise it makes it worst. But really the 3d is an ok idea, but those glasses area pain. and selling 3d tvs for home use sounds like a good idea, not sure how many glasses come with em, but i guess after a month maybe 2 you will be down to half of one and wondering what happened to the rest of the glasses.
3D allows you to see in the 3 dimension, it is also 3 times the price, for example on bargain tuesday at my multiplex a 2D movie is 5.75, while a 3D movie is 18 dollars with IMAX, or 2 dollars less with RealD. When you are going to see a family movie with a party of 4, numbers add up. If it costs more than purchasing 2 DVDs (40 dollars), it really makes no sense, it makes more sense to save up for 3D TV, and have netflix account. Suppose you watch 10 3D Movies this year, that is 1000 dollars, which is actually the premium for a 3D TV currently, and the 3D glasses on the TVs work better than the movie theather glasses. I also think theathers should not being charging a heafty premium for 3D, twice the price is okay, but three times the price is pushing it.
I like 3-D at the Theater, for a better experience. But at home, I’m not paying extra for it. And if I have guests over, paying hundreds of dollars each for glasses to they can watch too. Too expensive, especially in todays financial picture.
Oh, you silly, simple minded 3D haters!!! You are going whine about uncomfortable glasses, ticket prices, etc.? THEN GO TO THE 2D VERSION, YOU IDIOTS! 3D is simply the future, deal with it!!
And by the way, more movies competing in 3D, going into slowly expanding 3D screens, simply means a lower percentage of profit for each movie.
I think people are getting hip to the fact that not every 3D Movie will look as cool as Avatar did, so they aren’t going to spend the extra money as often on chilren’s movies when their kids probably won’t even care.
But more companies are pushing 3D. You have Sony, who makes movies, TVs and videogames, they are definitely going to keep pushing it. Hopefully things will even out and most movies in 3D were made right, or the price difference at least isn’t as substantial.