3D Movies Slowly but Surely Making a Comeback

Dreamworks chief Jeffrey Katzenberg recently unveiled the next major move for animated films – a new type of three-dimensional entertainment that will be seen throughout movie theaters nationwide starting later this year. Following the box office success of 3D versions of kid favorites like Hannah Montana and Chicken Little, four leading studios (Disney, 20th Century Fox, Paramount and Universal) will be backing the conversion of 10,000 screens to digital, making 3D movies a more regular offering at American cinemas.

More than 50 years have passed since the first 3D craze swept U.S. theaters, but with the major advances witnessed in digital filmmaking and projection since then, the new 3D film is promised to be an entirely new (and more comfortable) experience. Not only will young classics like Toy Story be reincarnated and re-released in 3D, but new projects by directors like James Cameron and Tim Burton are already slated for production.

As The Guardian reports:

The return to 3D is Hollywood’s latest attempt to persuade film-lovers to leave their home entertainment systems behind and venture out to a cinema. Last year 1.42bn cinema tickets were sold in North America, the same as the previous year, while DVD sales, which have sustained the studios over the past few years, slumped in 2007….

[The success of movies like Hannah Montana] has emboldened the studios to push ahead with a program to convert more screens to digital. The first 3,700 screens will be converted by October at a cost of $700m… Currently, only 4,600 of the estimated 38,000 cinema screens in North America are digital. Of those, just over 1,000 have the capability to screen films in 3D.

The Guardian: Coming Soon: New Generation of 3D Films