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There are two main buzz topics in the film business right now. One is how cinema is holding up during the recession; the other is digital 3D. The two are, of course, not mutually exclusive. The current success of the second is clearly providing must needed succour for the first.
Can this really be the same 3D, which once attended other short-lived filmmaking gimmicks like Smell-O-Vision, Sensurround and Emergo?
Clearly not if one’s to believe the words of Dreamworks’ chief Jeffrey Katzenberg who has famously claimed that today’s digital stereoscopic 3D is “nothing less than the greatest innovation that has happened for all of us in the movie business since the advent of colour 70 years ago.”
This past 12 months alone have already seen the release in the UK of 3D titles like Bolt, Monsters & Aliens, Coraline, Fly Me to the Moon, U2 3D, Hannah Montana & Miley Cyrus, The Jonas Bros in Concert, Scar 3D, G-Force , Ice Age 3, Journey to the Centre of the Earth, Pixar’s Up, which opened last year’s Cannes Film Festival, A Christmas Carol and, rounding
off 2009, Avatar, James Cameron’s first feature film for 11 years. And then there’s Toy Story 3, Shrek Goes Fourth … the list goes on and on.
So what’s the truth behind some of the present stats? According to David Hancock, head of film and cinema at authoritative Screen Digest: “The transition to digital projection technology is underway around the world, with 8,707 screens converted by end of 2008, and over 10,000 by June 2009.
“Digital 3D cinema is proving the major economic benefit of the conversion for exhibitors, for those that have taken the plunge, and is the principal driver of digitisation during 2009.
“At the end of 2008, there were 69 3D screens in the UK, and this figure had risen to 210 by the time Monsters vs Aliens was released this April. The three leading UK circuits have all committed heavily to digital 3D across their estates during 2009, and there should be around 400 3D screens in the UK by the end of 2009 for the release of Avatar.
“The spread of 3D is nationwide amongst the major circuits, a number of 3D screens going into almost every multiplex site. However, there is currently only one independent cinema that has opted for 3D, despite the track record of
in yer face!
Quentin Falk reports on why 3D films are back in vogue again
three times higher box office per screen average (3D compared to 2D equivalent) over all 3D releases to date …”
… and the winner is, WTW Cinemas’ Plaza at Truro.
Even as you read this comes news of what is claimed to be “the first British movie
to be shot in 3D” – have they forgotten 1972’s neglected classic The Four Dimensions of
Greta? – with the
Forthcoming release
of Vertigo Films’
Street Dance,
co-starring 2008’s
Britain’s Got
Talent winner
Diversity,
fellow competitors
Flawless and
previous BGT
champion,
George Sampson.
Greta? – with the
Forthcoming release
of Vertigo Films’
Street Dance,
co-
Talent winner
Diversity,
fellow competitors
Flawless and
previous BGT
champion,
George Sampson.
A NEW DIMENSION: Clockwise from top –
Ice Age 3, Diversity, who star in Street Dance, Up, Shrek, Toy Story 3 and
Jim Carrey in
A Christmas Carol
Ice Age 3, Diversity, who star in Street Dance, Up, Shrek, Toy Story 3 and
Jim Carrey in
A Christmas Carol
Truro’s Plaza is the only independent cinema in the UK to opt for 3D so far
