3D is here to stay

I was reading a newspaper article the other day about James Cameron and his take on 3D. He believes that 3D is here to stay; that it is no longer a novelty but a part of the evolution of movie-making. Its hard to argue with him now that Avatar has beaten Titanic (another Cameron movie) for the title of highest-grossing movie of all time.

Some interesting facts that he quoted during the interview was that Avatar was shown in both 3D and 2D formats with 60% of the moviehouses showing it on 2D and the 40% on 3D. But amazingly, 80% of the gross ticket receipts came from the 3D screens, while only 20% from the 2D. Its hard to say whether there were really a lot more moviegoers who watched the 3D version, or its just because the 3D screens were selling tickets at double the price.

That probably explains why studios are now scrambling to convert even regular 2D movies like Clash of the Titans into 3D in post production. Personally, I find such movies fall short of the true 3D potential as they were not really meant to take advantage of the 3D effect. Same with Alice in Wonderland. Cameron is supposed to re-release Titanic in 3D in the next couple of years.

Here's hoping Hef gets better mileage out of this 3D technology with his flagship Playboy magazine circulation dropping from 3.5 million in 2006 to just 1.5 million today. :)