3D Films Are Not The Future!

I go to the cinema a lot, at least once and week, and sometimes twice a week when the releases are coming thick and fast.

I’ll watch and enjoy a range of films, from gritty thrillers to foreign cinema to ‘for the kids’ animation. During the last 9 months 3D films have been cropping up more and more at the local multiplex, Bolt, Monsters vs Aliens, Coraline and Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs which has since gone on to be the highest grossing 3D film in the UK.

The film’s marketing companies shout the line of “3D is a better, more enjoyable cinema experience”, and they are correct in some cases, Coraline’s 3D was excellent and the best show case for the technology so far, it was immersive and added a great deal to the experience – it did improve an already very good film. Other films haven’t impressed as much, Bolt was good, but Monsters vs Aliens was pretty average and Ice Age 3’s 3D was hardly noticeable and pretty pointless.

Now, if you listen to the film studio owners – they will say that 3D is a technology brought in to help stop piracy. Reports suggest that 25% of potential revenue is lost due to film piracy – illegal downloads of films, and 90% of those have allegedly been filmed with a camcorder in a cinema. So to stop this, 3D films can’t be recorded with a camera – with a single lens camera and obviously one that isn’t able to wear a pair of 3D glasses, the result of trying to capture a 3D film this way is a blurry picture.

From these 2 points it all sounds very good – the cinema goers gets a better experience [albeit not always], and the film studios hopefully make more money, or at least they don’t loose some of the revenue that was previously lost to piracy.

Now, for the errors that have been made since the launch of 3D films, and this is mostly the fault of the actual cinemas.

Our cinema of choice is Cineworld in Ipswich, we have monthly cards allowing us to watch unlimited films for £13.50 each Рwhich is great. The price of a cinema ticket is about £7.00, so we only have to go twice in the space of a month for it to work out cheaper. Now, for 3D films they have been adding on an extra charge (£2.00 each, or £5.00 for a family ticket) Рnot to pay for the glasses, but for the extra cost that the cinema has had to make in buying the special 3D projectors it needs to show the films.

Following this, and I’m sure to appease their customers they have been putting on 2D versions of the films for people that don’t want to spend the extra on a 3D ticket. After the films I’ve seen I’m not fussed about seeing the 3D version and I’m certainly not going to spend an extra ¬£2.00 on seeing the 3D version. Now, if I’m not unique others will think the same and have possibly forced the hand of the cinema to put on the 2D versions. And of course, these 2D versions are able to be filmed by pirates.

This is evidence that 3D films are not drawing in the extra crowds. Surely if 3D films were doing their job they would create extra revenue and profit for the cinema, this extra revenue would cover the costs of the equipment upgrade and they wouldn’t need to be passed on to the customer. Or that the cinema is milking the excuse for extra revenue. I for one will only be watching the 2D versions in the future.