What's with all these 3-D movies? I don't care if a movie is in 3-D. Does anybody?
—Darwin, Tennessee
You may not care right now, but what if I tell you that—seriously, hold on to your promise rings for this one—the Jonas Brothers are slated to appear in all three dimensions for a concert movie set for release on Feb. 27?
I know, right?!
This really is the year for digital 3-D, with tons of flicks out or on their way, including Coraline, G-Force, a rerelease of Toy Story and James Cameron's Avatar. Oh, and Steven Spielberg just started production on the 3-D ordeal The Adventures of Tintin: Secret of the Unicorn, due out in 2011.
Truth is, though, it's too soon to say whether adding a dimension to movies is going to make a difference to anyone. Here's how I know...
Because ticket sales are just sort of meh. Take My Bloody Valentine, that horror picture about a tragedy changing the town of Harmony...forever! That's playing on about 1,000 screens, according to experts at Exhibitor Relations. Ticket sales have been "good," box office analyst Chad Hartigan tells me, "but there's no way to tell if it would have done that well anyway."
In short, he says, when it comes to the digital 3-D revolution, "there's not really any conclusive evidence yet." Meantime, if you want to see one of these "revolutionary" films, be prepared to pay an average of $2 to $3 extra, at the discretion of your local theater. That's because the theater owner must invest in a new projector to make everything pop.
All this effort may, however, make going out to the movie more special than watching in whatever two dimensions you keep at home—or so James, Steven, Kevin, Joe and Nick are hoping. That's why they're going to this trouble, people.
But is watching Jaime King run away from a killer dude dressed in mining gear worth seeing in 3-D? You tell me.
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