There is also no longer any question of whether there will be enough films to fill the new screens. Dreamworks animation announced in March that it would be going 100% 3D. Pixar joined it in April. The next 12 months will see the release of an unprecedented 12 new titles in the Imax format. Watchmen, Zack Snyder’s adaptation of the classic Alan Moore graphic novel, kicks things off in March, with the likes of Transformers II, Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince and James Cameron’s Avatar following on.
If all those films sound like the sort of fare that you avoid, the digital 3D revolution might still affect you. With DVD sales having fallen for the past few years due to piracy, the industry is looking to cinemas to raise future revenue. And with 3D versions of films accomplishing that feat by attracting larger audiences willing to pay more, where does that leave lower-budget, 2D fare? Could we eventually see two tiers develop, with only blockbuster features making it into cinemas, while independent fare is relegated to the home arena?
If that does happen, it will not be the Imax format that is to blame, since the company is careful not to flood the marketplace by opening too many screens in one area. But the proliferation of standard digital 3D might well lead to a situation where it actually becomes rare for a film released in cinemas to be not shot in the format. A kitchen sink, after all, looks pretty much the same in two or three dimensions, so your typical Mike Leigh movie is not going to be the first thing cinema chains look to when they are programming the new 3D screens.
What’s your view of the 3D revolution? Will it encourage you to head to the cinema more or are you concerned that the type of viewing experience the new technology heralds isn’t going to be your sort of thing at all?
Source: The Guardian
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