You could call it coincidence that, the weekend before movie theater owners gathered at ShoWest to discuss the future of their industry, Monsters vs. Aliens opened huge, earning more than half its box office from 3D screenings. But honestly, I wouldn't underestimate Jeffrey Katzenberg, the DreamWorks Animation CEO who has been pushing theaters to make the move to 3D for years now, and arrived at ShoWest today crowing about the results so far.
"To say we were all surprised is an understatement," Katzenberg said introducing today's afternoon panel, and maybe fudging the truth a little. Katzenberg came prepared with a whole slew of facts about how big 3D is worldwide, noting that 100% of Chinese screenings of Monsters vs. Aliens were in 3D, and that 38% of people in the United States who saw the movie in 2D wished they'd seen it in 3D instead.
But it isn't just Katzenberg trying to convince both the theater owners at ShoWest and the average moviegoer that 3D, and other in-theater gimmicks, are the way of the future. At the opening day luncheon, Fox Filmed Entertainment CEO Jim Gianapolos laid out all the statistics that say, no matter how many gadgets we have to distract us at home, we still want to go out to the movies. He quoted Homer Simpson: "Movies are our only escape from the drudgery of work and family."
IMAX, one of the sponsors of the luncheon, also got the royal treatment. In a short video extolling the virtues of IMAX and all the movies we'll see in that format, James Cameron promoted Avatar with the line "Watching Avatar is like dreaming with your eyes wide open," and J.J. Abrams gushed that IMAX is "the most impressive and immersive experience you can have at the movies." There was also footage from last summer's newscasts, reminding us that there were fanboys who would have sold their own mothers to see The Dark Knight on the super-big screen.
Today's two events were a pretty strong reminder that, indeed, movie theaters have done remarkably well keeping up with new technology to get more butts in seats, even if piracy seems to constantly threaten their ability to exist. Tomorrow we'll be treated to peeks at both Disney and Sony's upcoming 3D projects, and with the memory of seeing Monsters vs. Aliens with a spellbound crowd still fresh in my mind, all this talk of 3D being the future is sounding a lot more convincing. Or maybe Jeffrey Katzenberg has just finally worn me down.
