A new report from Slate takes a look at the last year of 3D theater revenues and finds them not just down, but actually doing worse than their 2D counterparts. The list of reasons is a long one including the higher cost of 3D tickets, the poor selection of movies, low quality conversions, and the significant percentage of the population that is unable or unwilling to view 3D content. All of these together have have created a dangerous perception of 3D as “low-quality”.
A larger problem appears to be that the quality of 3-D films is, on average, lower than the quality of 2-D movies. This is perhaps the most dangerous explanation–if true, it implies that consumers may have begun to link “3-D” and “lower-quality”, even if the link isn’t concious. From 2004-2010, the average Rotten Tomato rating of a 3-D film was 57 percent. From 2010-2011, it’s dropped to 41 percent. That includes the impact of all the extremely well-rated films also released on 3-D.
There’s always the possibility of 3D gaming, but even that doesn’t seem to have really done much to save 3D.
via 3-D Theater Revenues Decline, Though Root Cause Remains Uncetain – HotHardware.
