3-D is the next generation in the movie industry

http://www.usatoday.com/life/movies/news/2008-03-13-showest-3D_N.htm

ShoWest report: 3-D is the next generation in the movie industry
By Scott Bowles, USA TODAY
03-13-08

LAS VEGAS — For all the celebrities who paraded through ShoWest this week, the star who had theater owners chattering like high school children was a 15-year-old girl who didn't even set foot on the convention floor.

Hannah Montana ruled this year's conference. Or at least her movie did.

When the digitally shot, three-dimensional film Hannah Montana/Miley Cyrus: Best of Both Worlds Concert raked in $31 million on its opening weekend last month, it served as both wake up and warning for the owners of the nation's 6,000 theaters, which are about to undergo the most expensive and risky makeover since movies went to sound or color.

In their most audacious attempt yet to get people from behind their computer screens and television sets, studios and theater owners are going digital. That means they will be handing out 3-D glasses. They will be showing the Super Bowl and U2 concerts on their best 60-foot screens. They will play commercial movies in IMAX.

They'll be trying to make your $10,000 home theater look antiquated and quaint.

They will also charge more at the ticket booth.

If Hollywood and the Motion Picture Association of America get their wish and see half of the country's 42,000 movie screens converted to digital within the next three years, it could cost studios and theater owners upwards of $1 billion. And there's no guarantee it will revive an industry that hasn't seen an attendance increase in the past three years.

But that won't stop studios from trying. Journey to the Center of the Earth 3D, due July 11, will be the first live-action film shot and released entirely in 3-D. July 18's Batman sequel The Dark Knight has four key scenes shot in IMAX. And Monsters vs. Aliens hits screens March 27, 2009, as the first computer-generated animated movie created in 3-D.

That's the tip of the digital berg. At least 20 3-D and IMAX movies are headed to theaters over the next two years, from the epic (Avatar, James Cameron's digitally rendered sci-fi thriller) to the literally pedestrian (Step Up 3-D).

"I know it sounds strange coming from a guy who made independent movies early on, but for some movies, bigger is better," says Dark Knight director Christopher Nolan. "You have to stay ahead of what people have available to them at home, which is quite a lot. We have to offer more."

Upsides and downsides

But is it enough? Some theater owners worry that once they surrender their canisters of film, they will be at the mercy of technology that, like digital cameras and computers, keeps surging in capability and requires repeated investment.

Still, owners and studio executives agree that digital has distinct advantages over film:

•Image quality. Since pictures are digitally encoded, there's no degradation of image like you get on film. Think DVD over VHS.

•Flexibility. Digital movies can not only be swapped out simply by switching hard drives; they can be transmitted like cable TV, allowing theaters to carry live sporting and entertainment events.

•3-D. Digital projectors will allow more filmmakers to make three-dimensional films that are worlds beyond the 1950s 3-D craze, notable for its gimmicky paper glasses and titles such as Cat Women of the Moon and Gorilla at Large.

But some theater owners see sizable downsides to a digital world, some of which they fear will have the opposite effect they're hoping for.

•Increased ticket prices. Generally, 3-D, IMAX and special presentations such as concerts cost anywhere from $3 to $10 more a ticket. And with the average ticket price nearing $7, owners worry that breaking the $10 barrier will lose customers permanently.

•Technical challenges. "When a movie breaks, we can splice it together in about three minutes," says Leonard Binning, who owns a seven-screen theater in Alberta, Canada. "How many times does your computer freeze at work? Can you imagine a theater full of people, the network goes down, and you're looking for a tech guy?"

•Piracy. Because of its pristine image, a digital movie is ripe for theft. Even a camcorder recorder of a digital movie would be more valuable on the street than a duplicate of celluloid.

Still, Hollywood executives are not above doomsday predictions if theaters don't modernize quickly.

"Over the last 40 years, our population has grown by 120 million people," says Jeffrey Katzenberg, DreamWorks' animation chief. "But attendance remains flat. We are in a declining business. If we don't do something to reinvent ourselves, we are going to be in serious trouble down the road."

Hard to judge by the numbers

Change won't come cheap. Though studios and financiers are underwriting costs for many theater owners, the typical digital projector costs $75,000.

"This isn't a gimmick," says Nancy Fares, manager for Texas Instrument's Digital Light Projections group, which has sold about 4,000 projectors to theaters nationwide. For 3-D, she says, "people wear high-tech plastic glasses, usually that they can take home. They become immersed in the movie. It makes movies more of an event."

Audience responses have been inconclusive. Last year's $150 million animated tale Beowulf did $83 million in the United States, but another $114 million overseas. Hannah Montana did more than $63 million on about 850 screens — virtually every one that has digital projectors — for a robust per-theater average.

"If we could have put it on 3,000 screens, we would have," says Chuck Viane, head of distribution for Disney, which released the film. "We were limited only by the number of theaters that were digital. But that movie proved 3-D is viable. It's the real deal."

But some exhibitors wonder whether audiences can tell the difference in digital images the way they can in, say, digital sound.

"I did an experiment," says Mark O'Meara, president of University Mall Theatres in Fairfax, Va. "I installed digital sound while the same movie was playing for a few weeks. The first week without the new sound, people didn't say much about it. After the new sound system, people were raving about the movie. I know image quality is important, but there are other things that make a big difference, too. And they're not as expensive."

Binning says that, ultimately, he'll purchase the new projectors. "You have to keep up with technology if you want to put (butts) in the seats, because they expect the best," he says.

But first, he'll hire more ushers.

"We shouldn't let all this digital talk overshadow other things," he says. "I need more people monitoring who is being rude before I invest in a high-tech projector. A better picture is great, but it isn't going to make a difference if people are talking loudly, kicking the back of your seat and texting all night. We still need to concentrate on improving the overall movie experience."