And 5 Reasons 3D in Theaters Could Be in Trouble

By Steve Pond

In the past month or so, everyone from James Cameron to Michael Bay to DreamWorks chairman Jeffrey Katzenberg have sounded warnings about the rush to jump on the 3D bandwagon.

Here are five reasons they may be right.

1. DUMB 3D

Case in point: “Clash of the Titans.” Everyone (except, maybe, moviegoers) agrees its converted 3D — done in India under tight deadlines — was almost unwatchable.

“You cannot do anything that is of a lower grade and a lower quality than what has just been done on ‘Clash of the Titans,’” Jeffrey Katzenberg told Variety last week.

Shoddy 3D, argues Katzenberg, has the potential to cause a backlash that’ll kill the format. “… In the long run, (moviegoers) will wake up,” he said. “And the day they wake up is the day they walk away from us and we blew it.”

But it’s not just shoddy 3D. It’s also the overzealousness of studios that may be pushing filmmakers to shoot in 3D that don’t need to be in 3D. Movies that are done that way just because it’s the flavor of the week. Case in point: “Harry Potter,” a franchise that does quite nicely in 2D, thank you very much.

The worst example of this: “Superman Returns,” where only Supe’s flying scenes were shown in 3D — forcing moviegoers to keep taking those clunky glasses on and off in the course of the film.

On the other hand, Chris Cookson, the president of technology at Sony Pictures, disagrees with the idea that too much bad 3D will hurt the field. “You could argue that ‘Attack of the Killer Tomatoes’ did not stop people from seeing 2D movies,” Cookson told TheWrap.

Read the whole story here.