I'm sure it is no secret by now but I am going to discuss it anyway because it makes me angry and I want to get up and yell to the heads of all the movie studios, "Enough is enough."
As I am sure you have all noticed, 3-D is back and it's bigger than ever. This is its third true incarnation, the first being in the 50's and the second in the 80's, but now it has become more than just a gimmick. It has become commonplace at local Cineplex's. All new theaters being built are required to have at least half of their screens be 3-D compatible. All older theaters are converting over as fast as they can but the supply is soon going to become too great. Great news for the movie industry but wait! The movie going public that is rushing out to see these 3-D movies is being ripped off and it just isn't right.
Movies are being released in 3-D and patrons are being asked to pay $3 to $5 more per ticket so they can wear a pair of plastic glasses for a few hours, glasses they aren't even allowed to keep. Of course for those not willing to cough up the extra tariff the same theater offers the same movie in regular 2-D at its normal price but studios know if they push the 3-D aspect on its audience they will eat it up. Even more so because most of the 3-D movies coming out are either animated or for kids so marketers know their target audience will not be so judgmental. Of course once the film has played out it will normally hang in a smaller theater at your local Cineplex, but more often than not it will be the 3-D version you are forced to see at the inflated ticket price and that is just plain wrong.
In the last few years 3-D has been included sporadically within films so the gimmick would remain fresh. The way it should be. Then Avatar changed everything and the demand to see it in 3-D got studio heads believing people would see anything in 3-D. I saw Avatar in both 2-D and 3-D. There were some impressive moments in 3-D but I found I wasn't missing a thing when I saw it in regular 2-D. 3-D doesn't seem to mean what it used to.
It all started back in late 1952 with the release of Bwana Devil, the very first full length film in 3-D about railroad workers in Africa being picked off by two man-eating lions. The promise of having things thrust at the audience so they practically jumped out of their seats believing the object was going to actually hit them was too much to resist, and the low, low budget film became a smash hit and 3-D was off and running. Studios took notice and soon 3-D movies would come out at a rate of once every few months. This kept the process fresh and the gimmick flourished. Horror films such as Creature From the Black Lagoon and It Came From Outer Space became unexpected box office hits. What was all the fuss over?
To start, 3-D, plain and simple, was different. Each customer got a cheap pair of cardboard glasses with one lens being red and the other being green. Imagine the thrill for people with perfect vision to be able to put on the glasses. And let's be honest here and admit (and I do) that watching a movie in 3-D in theaters invariably led to that moment where you would lift your glasses for a moment or two and look around just to see what everyone else looked like wearing them. Uh-huh. We all did it so it's ok to admit it.
Then there was that promised thrill of things falling into your lap from a yo-yo to an attacking creature. Audiences, particularly younger teens, screamed and squealed with delight every time something was thrust their way. Simply put, 3-D was a revolutionary discovery for a time but a huge success. So popular was the system that even top talents such as Alfred Hitchcock (Dial M For Murder), John Wayne (Hondo) and Walt Disney (assorted short subjects) jumped on the bandwagon. The Three Stooges even made a short in 3-D.
According to Wikipedia the first decline in 3-D came in August or September of 1953, less than a year after the initial boom. Theater exhibitors were primarily the crying force in the end of the first 3-D craze for several reasons. First off was two prints of the film had to be projected simultaneously. These prints would have to remain exact or synchronization would be lost. Most theaters had to pay an extra projectionist so that there were two making sure the prints were in sync. When either print or shutters became out of sync the picture became virtually impossible to watch and accounted for many reports of headaches and eyestrain. The necessary silver projection screen was very directional and caused sideline seating to be unusable with both 3-D and regular films, due to the angular darkening of these screens.
However, just a a few months later, the musical Kiss Me Kate was released in 3-D and the craze began again. Such successes included Money From Home with Martin and Lewis, and the above mentioned John Wayne film Hondo. Also released in 3-D was the all time classic bad film Robot Monster but 3-D seemingly failed to excite an audience into buying tickets for that stinker. Once again 3-D began to decline because of the reasons listed above plus the popularity of television at home and widescreen films in theaters. Polaroid had created a system called "Tell-Tale Filter Kit" that basically recognized when one of the film prints was out of sync and automatically adjusted it but exhibitors never took to it and moved on. The final 3-D movie to be released in the era was Revenge of the Creature, a sequel to the enormously popular Creature From The Black Lagoon that turned out to be enormously popular in its own right. But 3-D was dead - for now.
For the next two decades 3-D popped up only rarely. In 1969 a couple of young filmmakers created a sexy comedy called The Stewardesses and decided to make it in 3-D. They opened it in California where it was an enormous hit. With profits from that run the filmmakers shot more footage and then released it in New York with the same results. So they continued filming more and more until they had what they thought to be a complete film and released it around the country and re-released it in California and New York. The move paid off. On a budget that came in at just under $100,000, the film would go on to gross more than $27 million. So popular was this film that it played in one downtown Chicago Theater (the long defunct Loop Theater) for 30 weeks.
In the 1970's 3-D popped up just a few times. The first time was in 1974's X-rated blood fest, Andy Warhol's Frankenstein which promised blood and guts in your lap. Well it turned out to be animal blood and guts and not exactly in your lap. Still the film was a box office hit. In 1976 an Italian company, hoping to cash in on the release of the big budget remake of King Kong later that year released their own adventure called Ape. It was as bad as you expected though a few of the 3-D effects (including flaming arrows) were well received.
3-D then came back to life for the second time in 1981 with the release of the light hearted Western Comin At Ya. The filmmakers went all out and threw every 3-D gimmick they could at audiences, and audiences ate it up. In the next four years there would be a total of ten more 3-D movies but only one, Friday the 13th 3-D, would be a big hit. For me this film had the best 3-D effects of the era with some spectacular moments including a harpoon being shot at you. Unfortunately the remaining 3-D films (Amityville 3-D; Jaws 3-D; The Man Who Wasn't There; Metalstorm: The Destruction of Jared-Syn; Parasite; Silent Madness; Spacehunter: Adventures in the Forbidden Zone; Starchaser: The Legend of Orin and Treasure of the Four Crowns which was made by the Comin At Ya team in one last gasp at reviving the suddenly dead gimmick) all had one thing in common: They were terrible films that were poorly written with little thought to story and too much thought to the gimmick. And, thus, by 1985 3-D was all but forgotten yet again.
Now we are back to present day. In 2010 there have already been 11 3-D releases in 8 months. Most of them were children's films. I refuse to understand any benefit to animated films having to be in 3-D. Is Up or Toy Story 3 any less enjoyable in 2-D? Do kids really see anything spectacular in animated 3-D? Of course not.
Two of the films released this year, Clash of the Titans and The Last Airbender, were originally shot in 2-D and converted in post production to 3-D. The resulting look was horrible and there really was nothing 3-D about them. The public was ripped off yet again and the product was only hurt by the greed of movie executives hoping to squeeze out a few more bucks per ticket.
But who am I to say? This last weekend saw the release of Step Up 3-D, a dancing picture. What could possibly be in 3-D in a dancing picture? You tell me. I won't be seeing it. Even though the film only made $15 million opening weekend it was reported that almost 70% of the audience saw it in 3-D. In other words never give a sucker an even break.
Right now there is no stopping 3-D despite the obvious gouging going on. At this moment there are 55 more movies being prepped for release in 3-D. Truthfully, does the world really need Piranha 3-D, Jackass 3-D, Resident Evil: Afterlife 3-D, Saw3-D and a slew of others? I hope so because those titles are real and coming to theaters soon. Even Harry Potter has jumped on the bandwagon. The last two films will be in 3-D. The makers of the final two Twilight films are considering the same thing.
A plethora of kid's films will be in 3-D between now and 2012. Are you ready for this? Yogi Bear, Pirates of the Caribbean (On Stranger Tides), Kung Fu Panda 2, Cars 2, Smurfs 3-D, Spy Kids 4, Journey to the Center of the Earth 2, Happy Feet 2, Alvin and the Chipmunks 3, Stretch Armstrong, Madagascar 3. Looking for more sequels or franchise re-boots? Look for these titles in 3-D over the next two years. Chronicles of Narnia: Voyage of the Dawn Treader, TRON: Legacy, XXX - The Return of Xander Cage, Final Destination 5, Halloween 3-D, Men in Black 3-D, The Ring 3-D, Mad Max 3-D, not to mention the next Batman and Spiderman chapters. But wait! There is also going to be titles such as Green Hornet, Green Lantern, Sucker Punch, Three Musketeers 3-D, Thor, Priest, Captain America, Godzilla plus a re-release of James Cameron's Titanic. Phew. Trust me there are even more I haven't listed. Overkill doesn't even begin to describe what is happening. If audiences give studios a chance to rip them off they'll keep feeding more of the same to you.
Let's put it this way. Only you can prevent 3-D movies and their ridiculous surcharges. Stop going to see them in 3-D. Give the movie honchos something to think about. If you don't they will only continue to produce what they think the public wants.
Source - Wikipedia.com
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