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3D: Coming to a screen near you

Posted on 15 May 2009 at 16:04

The big-screen pioneer

There's no doubt it's the big screen that's been driving 3D technology forward in recent years. The spread of IMAX cinemas across the UK - currently up to eight - gave many the opportunity to see true 3D cinema for the first time, with short films chronicling the natural world and the environment making up much of the available content.

But as 3D screens began multiplying, Hollywood upped its output. Late 2007 saw the release of Robert Zemeckis' $150 million film, Beowulf. Created entirely using motion capture and specifically marketed as a 3D experience, it more than made back its production costs, and 3D showings accrued 13% of the film's opening weekend takings in the US - despite making up less than 2% of the total screens.

In late 2008, Journey to the Center of the Earth 3D raked in more than four times its $60 million budget. 2009 has already seen Disney's Bolt 3D nominated for an Oscar, and the low-budget horror My Bloody Valentine 3D recoup its costs in a single weekend. The big guns are joining the fray too: DreamWorks' Monsters vs Aliens and Pixar's Up are both due in 3D this year.

Releasing a film in this format is no longer the risk it once was, partly due to consumers' willingness to pay for the 3D experience. At last December's 3D Entertainment Summit in Los Angeles, DreamWorks' Jeffrey Katzenberg revealed the incremental cost of going stereoscopic on a $150 million animated movie was $15 million, which would be easily recouped by charging a premium on tickets. Screen Digest analyst Charlotte Jones furthered the business case, noting that 3D screens were generating twice the attendance of 2D screens and three times the revenue.

Tim Richards, CEO of Vue Entertainment, agrees. "Every film we've shown that was created expressly to be viewed in 3D has outgrossed and outplayed its 2D counterpart," he said. And this has triggered the most important link in the chain: getting the cinemas to invest in 3D technology. Vue Cinemas has signed up 3D expert RealD to convert 200 of its UK screens, a dozen others are already completed.

The 3D conversion costs around £40,000 per screen, but Richards is confident the chain will more than recoup the costs. "Every major director and producer in Hollywood has a 3D project right now," he explained. "Peter Jackson and Steven Spielberg have teamed up for three Tintin films in 3D, and George Lucas is converting his Star Wars films for re-release. This isn't a flash in the pan."

No argument from Showcase Cinemas, which has nine capable venues, nor Odeon, which spent the first quarter of 2009 installing NEC NC1600C and NC2500S DLP projectors in theatres across the UK. This took its total of 3D-capable screens to 50, with a further 20 due for completion by the beginning of July. As with the converted Vue projectors, the NECs use a polarising filter to project a 2K (2,048 x 1,080) stereoscopic image using a single lamp and lens - an elegant solution compared with the complex twin-camera system used while filming.

Which brings us, more than a decade after he sank the Titanic, to James Cameron and Avatar. There are few directors capable of persuading a studio to part with more than $200 million for a project using a relatively unproven technology - but Cameron is no ordinary director. The water effects of The Abyss, the liquid metal of Terminator 2, the stunning sight of that sinking ship - he has always found new ways to squeeze more out of the available technology, and 3D is his latest obsession.