« ‘Strange Wilderness’ | Home | New DVD releases include ‘Gone Baby Gone’ »
At the movies, 3D’s hot all over again
By admin | February 11, 2008
Features like ‘Hannah Montana’ are the big hope
If it didn’t get huge amounts of attention, that’s not entirely surprising. It was Super Bowl weekend, after all, when nearly 100 million Americans, a record, tuned in to watch the underdog New York Giants yank a late-game victory from the grip of the favored New England Patriots.
But when it comes to records, this ranks up there with the big game. That same weekend, a movie of a pop concert featuring TV tween icon Hannah Montana (Miley Cyrus) smashed several important box office records.
While its gross wasn’t so huge–$31.1 million–it was the most ever for a movie opening on a Super Bowl weekend.
But what made “Hannah” so important was not its ticket sales but the movie’s format, 3D. While 3D has been around for years, it never quite fulfilled its promise. “Hannah Montana & Miley Cyrus: Best of Both Worlds Concert in 3D,” filmed in RealD, one of several newer formats, delivered and then some, and at a critical time for the film industry.
While ticket sales have been rising in recent years, moviemakers are feeling increasing pressure to improve the movie-going experience–the wow factor, as they might say in movieland–in the face of ever-richer at-home entertainment options, such as internet games and high-definition TV.
“Hannah’s $31 million opening is not only music to the ears of Walt Disney, theatre exhibitors, as well as purveyors of 3-D like RealD, it is a clear game-changer for the industry,” writes Jeff Bock, box office analyst, at Exhibitor Relations Co.
Among the big names hoping for big things from 3D are “Titanic” director James Cameron, George Lucas and Jeffrey Katzenberg.
It’s not hard to understand why. Costing just $7 million to make, “Hannah” fetched $15 a ticket, several dollars more than the price of a standard-format movie, which enabled the movie to gross a record $45,000 per screen, though showing on just 683 screens.
On average, 3D movies produce about three times the revenue per screen as the same movie in 2D, while also averaging twice the attendance per screen, according to Charlotte Jones, cinema analyst for Screen Digest, a media research firm.
Three-D technology has come a long way from the time, back in the ’50s, when folks had to wear uncomfortable red-green cardboard glasses in order to watch, and the movies were more fantastical than realistic. One still wears special glasses but they are considered more comfortable, and the visual experience is said be far more realistic.
Over the last few years, 3D movies have been trickling out in the various new 3D formats, one of the first being “Polar Express” back in 2004. It showed in Imax theaters.
Since then other technologies have emerged allowing more theaters to play 3D movies. Currently there are about 1,300 3D digital screens worldwide. That number is expected to continue to increase, hitting about 4,000 by the end of 2009.
As it does the number of 3D films being released will too. In 2008 there are five or six movies that will have 3D versions, including Walden Media’s “Journey to the Center of the Earth 3D,” Disney’s “Bolt” and nWave Pictures’ “Fly me to the Moon.” They follow “Hannah” and “U2 3D,” which also did well.
More movies are expected out this year, and 2009 also looks to be the big year, when Dreamworks is committed to only releasing movies in 3D.
Meanwhile, elsewhere in popcult, the poorly reviewed romantic comedy “Fool’s Gold” topped the box office over the weekend with $22.0 million in ticket sales, while last week’s No. 1, “Hannah,” dropped to No. 3.
In DVD rentals for the week ended Feb. 3, according to IMDb.com, the family comedy “The Game Plan” was No. 1 for the second straight week, followed again by “Good Luck Chuck.”
On iTunes this morning, Flo Rida’s “Low” was No. 1 for a 13th straight week, while “New Soul” by Yael Naim was No. 2 for the second straight week.
And in books, John Grisham’s latest title “The Appeal” debuted at No. 1 on The New York Times’ hardcover fiction best-sellers list for the week ended Feb. 2, and was also No. 1 on USA Today’s chart for the week ended Feb. 3.
Topics: Film Commentary |