10 Movie Trends That Have Been Killing Cinema For Longer That You Think

9. 3D

The 'Modern' Problem: With piracy threatening all strata of the movie production chain, there needed to be a new way to make watching films on the big screen the essential way to experience them. Rather than pushing enhanced image quality, superior sound and comfortable (read: non-sticky) auditoriums, it was decided to subject audiences to a darkened picture and increased ticket price for a gimmicky effect that you get used to after ten minutes. And, shockingly, it worked. 3D wasn't pushed on us for any reason other than money (don't listen to anyone talking about immersion - a good story would do that anyway), although at least now audiences are beginning to wizen up; ticket sales for 2D showings are totally dominating their more expensive brethren. But Actually: Everyone knows this isn't the first time we've had the industry try and push 3D on us; both when VHS arrived in the eighties and as TV first became big in the fifties cinema forced some of its biggest hits into the third dimension. But long before Hitchcock made Dial M For Murder 3D (seriously) stereoscopy had been tested on audiences. In fact, the process of turning images into a three-dimensional picture had been patented before cinema; 3D is older than film itself.