After the gigantic success of Avatar and then the massive success of Alice In Wonderland, audiences and movie studios are in love with 3D. Studios love it because they can charge higher ticket prices (price elasticity is about to be tested beginning this weekend with Dreamworks' How To Train Your Dragon) as the cost of a 3D movie ticket gets over $15 and close to $20 depending on your city. (Now movies join concerts in charging higher prices - see my blog below). Higher ticket prices boost revenue and studios love anything generates large amounts of quarterly revenue. Audiences love it because they can only see it in cinemas, making it a unique experience. And unique experiences have been missing in cinema since everyone bought a large screen TV and home theater sound system. It's a different visual experience, and frankly after seeing Avatar, I totally agree with the audiences' perspective. 3D is just a brilliant way to see a film.
With 3D revenue filling in for blood in the proverbial cinema waters, every studio is looking at every theatrical film they have to see if they can 3D it. And my studio, Warner Bros. is jumping into 3D with both feet. We have at least 5 films this year that are in 3D. And WB isn't the only studio. Sony announced that the new Spider Man (technically Spider Man 4, but there will be no numbers in the title since it's a relaunching of the franchise). And right there is the problem. Film is a directors medium, and now Sony is telling whomever they hire to make the new Spider Man film that it HAS to be in 3D. 3D requires the right 3D camera equipment, a different shooting style, different editing, sounds, etc. It's a different way of shooting a film, visualizing it in 3D.
No less than 2 titans of directing, James Cameron and Michael Bay, want to put the brakes on every film being released in 3D. Right now there are 2 ways to shoot a 3D film. 1. Are films that are already completed and can be retrofitted with 3D for a price and 2. The rarer (and less rarer as we go along) is the film CONCEIVED in 3D. And therein lies the rub.
The age old battle between art and commerce is being waged even to this day. Studios want more money, and more money means more 3D. Directors are more savvy, with their films and therefore their reputations on the line, they don't want to be forced to make a 3D film and risk it bombing. If audiences are being charged a premium and they don't feel like they are getting their money's worth, they will not go to a 3D film.
And that point was driven home for me this week. I saw Avatar twice and each time I totally felt like it was worth paying almost $20 for my ticket. And then this week I saw Alice In Wonderland in 3D and it was terrible. Other than tea cups getting thrown at my head, there was no reason for that film to be in 3D. I felt robbed and I wanted my $3 3D "premium" money back and I'll be perfectly happy seeing it at the regular "bargain" ticket price of $12 in 2D. And I won't be alone.
If studios like mine are not careful, we'll overdo it and kill the golden goose before we've even gotten a chance to mine that revenue stream of golden eggs. And directors, while I applaud your astounding creativity, Mr. Cameron set the bar pretty high for all of you. I remember thinking while watching Avatar that Steven Spielberg and Peter Jackson must be watching Avatar and thinking to themselves, "Uh Oh.....how do we top this?" Mr. Cameron has thrown down the gauntlet and directors are too egomanical to not try to out do each other. See the battle unfold this year at your local cinema....who will win - art or commerce?
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