Dreamworks sees future in 3-D
LAS VEGAS (AP) - March 11, 2008 "It is nothing less than the greatest innovation that has
happened for all of us in the movie business since the advent of
color 70 years ago," Katzenberg said in an address at ShoWest, a
conference in Las Vegas where studios unveil clips and other
details about upcoming movie lineups.
"Now it's our chance to deliver something that is far superior
than anything that can be done in the home," he said.
Katzenberg then showed off a 3-D clip of his studio's March 2009
release "Monsters vs. Aliens," in which the U.S. military
unleashes a barrage on an alien space ship as the president fires a
few rounds from a handgun, shouting "I'm a brave president!"
The presentation came after the announcement of a deal calling
for the conversion of 10,000 more theater screens for the digital
technology needed to accommodate 3-D.
Access Integrated Technologies Inc. said it had reached
agreements with four studios - Disney, News Corp.'s 20th Century
Fox, Viacom Inc.'s Paramount, and Universal Pictures, which is
owned by General Electric Co.'s NBC Universal - to finance and
equip the screens in the U.S. and Canada during the next three
years.
The conversion will cost as much as $700 million, said Bud Mayo,
chief executive of Access Integrated Technologies, which completed
a first tranche of 3,700 digital conversions in October.
Hollywood is anxious to convert as many theaters as possible to
the digital format, which provides sharper images while eliminating
the need for expensive celluloid film.
The digital technology can also be used to show 3-D movies with
the addition of software and hardware costing about $25,000 per
year for each screen.
"Hannah Montana & Miley Cyrus: Best of Both Worlds Concert," a
3-D movie, pulled in $31.3 million in its opening weekend last
month, an impressive feat because it played on only 683 screens.
Many wide-release, 2-D films open on more than 3,000 screens and
make half as much money.
"We were in as many locations as we could possibly get," said
Chuck Viane, president of distribution for Walt Disney Studios
Motion Pictures. "If there were 3,000 3-D screens available, would
we have played them all? Yeah, I think we would."
"Chicken Little," the first-ever animated 3-D movie released
in November 2005, made $23,864 per screen, compared with $10,949
for the 2-D version.
Box office figures have shown that the enveloping feel of 3-D
can attract two to three times more moviegoers who are willing to
pay as much as $3 more per ticket, Stifel Nicolaus analyst Drew
Crum said.
At least 30 more 3-D movies are in the pipeline from Hollywood,
including this summer's adaptation of Jules Verne's "Journey to
the Center of the Earth."
Theaters owners and studios hope the offerings will help bring
people back to multiplexes for an experience that cannot be matched
by increasingly sophisticated home theater systems.
The theater industry is also battling competition from video
games and other alternative entertainment along with Internet movie
downloads.
The push to convert screens had been bogged down by a number of
issues, including the shaky credit market that has threatened to
increase costs even further.
"It's just been maybe slower than anticipated," Crum said.
Thus far, about 4,000 screens - just 10 percent of the estimated
38,000 screens in the U.S. and Canada - have been outfitted with
digital technology.
Only about 1,040 of those screens are now outfitted to show 3-D
movies.
Interest in 3-D has come and gone since the 1950s, but studios
began to take the format seriously again after a 3-D version of
2004's "The Polar Express" from Warner Bros. grossed more than
$45 million.
A number of high-profile filmmakers now have 3-D projects in the
works, including James Cameron and Tim Burton.
Walt Disney Co. is making "Toy Story 3" in 3-D and plans to
rerelease the first two "Toy Story" films in the trilogy in the
format.
Along with digital projection, today's 3-D technology makes use
of polarized lenses rather than the flimsy red and green cardboard
cutouts of the past that could cause nausea and headaches.
In October, Access Integrated Technologies completed a two-year
effort to retrofit multiplex screens at a cost of nearly $280
million - about $75,000 per screen.
AccessIT is recouping the cost from studios over the next 10
years.
Meanwhile, theater chains are ponying up as much as $25,000 a
year per screen to technology firm REAL D for the software,
physical upgrades and maintenance that makes it possible to show
3-D movies.
The current dearth of screens has caused some short-term kinks.
DreamWorks Animation said last month it pushed back the release
of its "How to Train Your Dragon" by four months to March 2010 to
avoid competing for 3-D screens with Cameron's hotly anticipated
feature film "Avatar."
The logjam has ramped up the pressure to cut deals to convert
theaters.
A second financing vehicle called Digital Cinema Implementation
Partners was formed last March by the three largest theater
exhibitors, Regal Entertainment Group, AMC Entertainment Inc. and
Cinemark Holdings Inc. with plans to outfit their 14,500 theaters
with digital technology.
"We, the exhibitors, and most of the studios want to make
things happen so we can support what is a major commitment by
multiple parties to the 3-D space," he said. "It's going to
happen."