Summer 2024 testing 3D cinema's future prospects

Many moviegoers may not don 3D glasses in theaters again until December 2025, when “Avatar 3,” is scheduled to be released in theaters, three years after James Cameron’s “Avatar: The Way of Water“ became the third highest grossing movie of all time, with a whopping 61% of its $2.3 billion worldwide box office generated from 3D ticket sales.

But plenty of non-native 3D movies continue to be available in theaters, just not as many as there used to be. In the coming weeks, Disney/Pixar’s “Inside Out 2” on June 14, Universal/Illumination’s “Despicable Me 4” on July 3 and Disney/Marvel’s “Deadpool & Wolverine” on July 26 are some of the high-profile titles that will be available with glasses, hoping to win back fans with a quality experience.

The move from film to digital projectors in the early 2000s helped propel the initial development of digital 3D exhibition, and with 2009’s “Avatar,” the highest-grossing movie of all time, the format that was once best known for its use in the 1950s on films such as “House of Wax” was again a hit with audiences.

In 2016, 3D represented as much as 23% of the global box office — $8.7 billion of the $38.8 billion total box office, according to MPA figures.

The problem is that this momentum was short-lived, slowing even before the pandemic. Amid complaints about poor-quality 3D conversions and some viewers getting headaches, by 2019 the global box office had grown to $42.3 billion while 3D ticket sales decreased to $6.5 billion, according to MPA data.

Then came the COVID-19 outbreak, and MPA reported that the 2020 global box office dropped to $11.8 billion, with just $700 million of that coming from 3D.

Recovery began in the exhibition space. The 2023 global box office reached $33.9 billion, noted Gower Street Analytics. Of that, the films that were released in both 2D and 3D during 2023 earned a total of $6.5 billion globally, of which $1.7 billion was from 3D ticket sales — a post-pandemic record — according to data provided RealD.

That box office was led by the long run of “The Way of Water,” which began in December 2022 and included Universal/Illumination’s “The Super Mario Bros. Movie,” which topped $1.3 billion worldwide, Disney/Pixar’s “Elemental” and Warner Bros.’ “Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom.” (China is the world’s largest 3D market, and countries such as Argentina, Austria and Germany are among those with sizable 3D markets as well.)

In recent years, there has also been a new stage in the evolution of 3D, characterized by higher-quality projection and fewer releases. The glasses have been known to significantly cut back on the brightness of the imagery, and in the early days of digital 3D, there were plenty of complaints about its projection being too dark. But the industry’s move from xenon lamp-based projectors to brighter laser-based models has helped to address that issue. Brighter and more precise 3D playback can also reduce eye strain.

Another issue in the earlier days was the content itself. In what was viewed by many as a cash grab, there was a rush to create 3D releases and in turn charge higher ticket prices, which would result in some poor-quality films. And if the left eye and right eye images were not working in harmony, it could cause eye strain.

More recently, there have been fewer 3D releases, and those generally seemed to be more carefully crafted, as evidenced by the lack of problems note in the trade press. As well, its use in the storytelling has been less gimmicky.

It remains to be seen what impact 3D might have on this year’s box office. RealD is seeing optimistic signs, finding that in 2019 the domestic take rate (the percentage of the given film’s total box office that came from 3D ticket sales) on live-action 3D titles had slipped to an average of 11.5%, while in 2023 it was up to 14.9%. A 2019 take rate for animated 3D features was at 6.8%, while in 2023 it reached 11.3%.

The upcoming 3D slate includes a string of anticipated animated movies, among them “Inside Out 2,” “Despicable Me 2,” “Transformers One,” “The Wild Robot” and “Moana 2,” and live-action tentpoles such as “Deadpool & Wolverine” and “Venom: The Last Dance.”

Meanwhile, stop-motion 3D movie “Coraline” is getting a 15th-anniversary rerelease this year. And the 2025 slate already includes Disney’s live-action retelling of “Snow White” and Marvel’s “Captain America: Brave New World.”