Roland, you mentioned 3D tv's. Our TV recently died and I found a nice Samsung to repalce it. One of the options the Samsung came with was 3D. It came with two pair of glasses which oddly needed charging. While I could have cared less about this option, I must say with those glasses, on the Samsung TV we have seen some incredible 3D effects. I think the TV is much better then the theater experience for 3D. It is actually wonderful. It came as a wonderful surprise how good it is. JIm
On Tue, May 31, 2011 at 8:10 AM, Roland Lataille < [email protected]> wrote: > If this continues, maybe they will have more screens doing 3-D than flat. > Here in Connecticut, the Manchester Rave theatres are showing Pirates of > the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides in flat, Disney Digital 3D and Imax 3D. > > I work in retail and we do sell a large number of 3D ready TV sets. So > maybe people are staying home to watch the same movie in 3D? > > ------------------------------ > *From:* Kirby McDaniel <[email protected]> > *To:* [email protected] > *Sent:* Monday, May 30, 2011 10:16 AM > *Subject:* [MOPO] SOMEWHAT OFF TOPIC: 3-D FIZZLE? > > Will History Repeat Itself? from today's NY Times > > Kirby McDaniel > www.movieart.net > > May 29, 2011 > 3-D Starts to Fizzle, and Hollywood Frets > By BROOKS BARNES and MICHAEL CIEPLY > LOS ANGELES — Has the 3-D boom already gone bust? It’s starting to look > that way — at least for American moviegoers — even as Hollywood prepares to > release a glut of the gimmicky pictures. > > Ripples of fear spread across Hollywood last week after “Pirates of the > Caribbean: On Stranger Tides,” which cost Walt Disney Studios an estimated > $400 million to make and market, did poor 3-D business in North America. > While event movies have typically done 60 percent of their business in 3-D, > “Stranger Tides” sold just 47 percent in 3-D. “The American consumer is > rejecting 3-D,” Richard Greenfield, an analyst at the financial services > company BTIG, wrote of the “Stranger Tides” results. > > One movie does not make a trend, but the Memorial Day weekend did not give > studio chiefs much comfort in the 3-D department. “Kung Fu Panda 2,” a > Paramount Pictures release of a DreamWorks Animation film, sold $53.8 > million in tickets from Thursday to Sunday, a soft total, and 3-D was 45 > percent of the business, according to Paramount. > > Consumer rebellion over high 3-D ticket prices plays a role, and the > novelty of putting on the funny glasses is wearing off, analysts say. But > there is also a deeper problem: 3-D has provided an enormous boost to the > strongest films, including “Avatar” and “Alice in Wonderland,” but has > actually undercut middling movies that are trying to milk the format for > extra dollars. > > “Audiences are very smart,” said Greg Foster, the president of Imax Filmed > Entertainment. “When they smell something aspiring to be more than it is, > they catch on very quickly.” > > Muddying the picture is a contrast between the performance of 3-D movies in > North America and overseas. If results are troubling domestically, they are > the exact opposite internationally, where the genre is a far newer > phenomenon. Indeed, 3-D screenings powered “Stranger Tides” to about $256 > million on its first weekend abroad; Disney trumpeted the figure as the > biggest international debut of all time. > > With results like that at a time when movies make 70 percent of their total > box office income outside North America, do tastes at home even matter? > > After a disappointing first half of the year, Hollywood is counting on a > parade of 3-D films to dig itself out of a hole. From May to September, the > typical summer season, studios will unleash 16 movies in the format, more > than double the number last year. Among the most anticipated releases are > “Transformers: Dark of the Moon,” due from Paramount on July 1, and Part 2 > of Part 7 of the “Harry Potter” series, arriving two weeks later from Warner > Brothers. > > The need is urgent. The box-office performance in the first six months of > 2011 was soft — revenue fell about 9 percent compared with last year, while > attendance was down 10 percent — and that comes amid decay in > home-entertainment sales. In all formats, including paid streaming and DVDs, > home entertainment revenue fell almost 10 percent, according to the Digital > Entertainment Group. > > The first part of the year held a near collapse in video store rentals, > which fell 36 percent to about $440 million, offsetting gains from cut-price > rental kiosks and subscriptions. In addition, the sale of packaged discs > fell about 20 percent, to about $2.2 billion, while video-on-demand, though > growing, delivered total sales of less than a quarter of that amount. > > At the box office, animated films, which have recently been Hollywood’s > most reliable genre, have fallen into a deep trough, as the category’s top > three performers combined — “Rio,” from Fox; “Rango,” from Paramount; and > “Hop,” from Universal — have had fewer ticket buyers than did “Shrek the > Third,” from DreamWorks Animation, after its release in mid-May four years > ago. > > “Kung Fu Panda 2” appears poised to become the biggest animated hit of the > year so far; but it would have to stretch well past its own predecessor to > beat “Shrek Forever After,” another May release, which took in $238.7 > million last year. > > For the weekend, “The Hangover: Part II” sold $118 million from Thursday to > Sunday, easily enough for No. 1. “Kung Fu Panda 2” was second. Disney’s > “Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides” was third with $39.3 million > for a new total of $152.9 million. “Bridesmaids” (Universal Pictures) was > fourth with $16.4 million for a new total of about $85 million. “Thor” > (Marvel Studios) rounded out the top five with $9.4 million for a new total > of $160 million. > > Studio chiefs acknowledge that the industry needs to sort out its 3-D > strategy. Despite the soft results for “Kung Fu Panda 2,” animated releases > have continued to perform well in the format, overcoming early problems with > glasses that didn’t fit little faces. But general-audience movies like > “Stranger Tides” may be better off the old-fashioned way. > > “With a blockbuster-filled holiday weekend skewing heavily toward 2-D, and > 3-D ticket sales dramatically underperforming relative to screen allocation, > major studios will hopefully begin to rethink their 3-D rollout plans for > the rest of the year and 2012,” Mr. Greenfield said on Friday. > > Visit the MoPo Mailing List Web Site at www.filmfan.com > ___________________________________________________________________ > How to UNSUBSCRIBE from the MoPo Mailing List > > Send a message addressed to: [email protected] > In the BODY of your message type: SIGNOFF MOPO-L > > The author of this message is solely responsible for its content. > > > Visit the MoPo Mailing List Web Site at www.filmfan.com > ___________________________________________________________________ How to > UNSUBSCRIBE from the MoPo Mailing List Send a message addressed to: > [email protected] In the BODY of your message type: SIGNOFF > MOPO-L The author of this message is solely responsible for its content. > > -- Jim Gresham 18501 Henry Ct Ray Mi 48096 586 677-7669 www.theyreherealreadybook.com Visit the MoPo Mailing List Web Site at www.filmfan.com ___________________________________________________________________ How to UNSUBSCRIBE from the MoPo Mailing List Send a message addressed to: [email protected] In the BODY of your message type: SIGNOFF MOPO-L The author of this message is solely responsible for its content.
