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James Cameron Discusses the 3D Backlash

By August 26, 2010Newswires

James Cameron Discusses the 3D Backlash

The 3D backlash has begun, or so box office number crunchers and Hollywood reporters would have you believe. We weren’t so sure. So when we recently talked to the king of 3D, James Cameron, about the upcoming Avatar re-release, we brought up the controversy. His thoughts? The retaliation is right on target‚ for now. High-quality 3D, however, will prevail, Cameron says, to settle the debate.

By Erin McCarthy

Q. There’s been a bit of a backlash against 3D. I’m curious what you make of it.

A. There are two aspects of this. One is they’re ignoring the fact that all the 3D movies are still making a lot of money. It’s sort of leveling off‚ instead of making three times multiple, they’re now making a two times multiple of 2D. But I do agree that there’s a consumer backlash and I actually think it’s a good thing, because what they’re lashing back against is some pretty crappy stuff. The consumer position is that if I’m going to pay premium for this ticket, you better show me the money, you know? You better show me the goods. I think that’s completely valid. I want the studios to get spanked for making bad decisions because I actually think they’re compromising the overall 3D market if they continue this way. I don’t think any long term damage has been done‚ as long as they take heed of these lessons, and don’t do slap dash six week conversions that look like crappy pop-up
cards.

But the thing that everybody has got to remember here is that all of the films that have come out after Avatar were made before Avatar came out. Or at least were mostly through their production cycle before Avatar came out. So any lessons learned about how to do it, in terms of how to use the cameras, how to use the stereo spaces and so on, that might be learned by other live action film makers from Avatar‚ we haven’t seen those films yet. It takes a year to make a decent film.

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