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Over the last couple of years, movie theaters have seen a surge in the release of 3D movies since Avatar in 2009 which proved the technology to be excellent and worth it. This past summer, over 10 films released in the 3D format, but is it creating more revenue? The additional surcharge for the 3D ticket generates more revenue per ticket, but the fact is the public does not want to see every movie in 3D as movies are being converted quickly and many times poorly for a higher ticket price. The poor customer association with the technology is causing people to choose 2D screenings over 3D screenings of the same film, seen this summer with every 3D movie released. The final Harry Potter film, which grossed $169.2 million, generated only 43% of this figure from the ticket sales of its 3D screenings. The same percentage was seen with all of the summer’s top grossing films, which begs the question is 3D worth the extra surcharge of about $5. Based on this, 3D will most likely harm the box office as it’s over priced and not always worth the money, and especially with cheap movie streaming at home, less people will be attracted to pay to see 3D movies in theaters.
Interesting… some think it’s a dying fad, but some think it’s lucrative business — and have evidence to support it.
I heard somewhere that the number 3D-capable screens in theatres DOUBLED in a year, and also that while only 1/25 of ticket sales they account for 1/10 of revenue.
So, will it die? If 3D is proportionally making more money, and theatres are adamant to adopt 3D technology, and more and more movies are coming out in 3D, can 3D survive? Will ticket sales decrease and be balanced by high revenues?
It’s hard to tell. I think a few years of data collection would really help. So, in the meantime, we might be stuck with 3D movies.
It is true that there are more 3D theaters than there used to be. Back in 2009, there were under 10 in all of Canada and now almost every theater in Vancouver has the ability to show at least two 3D movies at once.
It’s unknown at this point if it will die or stay around, but over the next few years there will be major releases of films that were filmed in 3D (mainly The Hobbit and Avatar 2 and 3) compared to the bombardment of 3D conversions that have been released over the past two years (Harry Potter, Transformers, Toy Story 3, etc.) The success of those movies will determine whether 3D is here to stay or go.
But for the time being, 3D is harming the box office as people are being turned off going to the movies as they don’t want to watch movies in 3D cause of either the poor conversion process butchering the film or the extra surcharges which increases the price of a movie ticket significantly even if it is on Cheap Tuesdays.