The blog “Box Office Quant” has an excellent post on “The Rise of 3D” from January 26, 2011.
“Since the Polar Express delivered us into an era of 3D revival in 2004, critics have been popularly proclaiming 3D as a dead medium walking. But what do the numbers show? Well, it appears the demise of 3D has been somewhat exaggerated.”
Using well-footnoted data, author Edmund Helmer slices and dices the numbers to show how and why 3D is incredibly profitable.
“Enough with the gimmickry, price gouging and 2D conversions” Fantastic piece from MacLeans.ca by Brian D. Johnson June 30, 2011. Some highlights:
“Abolish 3D ‘conversion.’ […] Movies shown in 3D should be designed and shot in 3D.”
“Unless you’re shooting a porn movie, stop pimping out 3D as a special effect. Enough with the poking, jabbing and zooming. Look, we walk around in 3D all day long without noticing. Breaking the fourth wall with a gun or a spear takes us out of the movie.”
“Cut the tempo of fast-action scenes in half. That third plane of motion complicates everything; it makes our eyes work harder, and more independently. Give them a break.”
“Take a cue from Werner Herzog and make 3D a tool for documentary revelation.”
“Make movies in 3D, not for 3D.”
“Get creative. 3D was miscast as a marketing gimmick wedded to the action blockbuster. Why not use it to open up the art house? […] There’s no telling where that third dimension might lead if it were married to emotional depth.”
As the summer movie season 2011 got underway the first two big blockbusters–Disney’s Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides and DreamWorks Animation’s Kung Fu Panda 2–both saw their 2D versions outperform 3D versions.
In a very frank interview Katzenberg talks about the opportunity and disappointment of the current crop of 3D films.
Planet 3D 