3. Say No To Peer Pressure When It Comes To 3D
'-Insert film title here- coming to a theater near you in eye-popping 3D!' Stop me if you've heard that before. Also, my new favorite craze, "Huge grossing film released years ago is getting re-released in 3D because it didn't make enough money the first time around." This is a perpetuating problem in Hollywood; forever a copycat business latching on to every passing fad because it worked once, completely ignoring the 10 other times it bombed. More often than not, the films are CONVERTED to 3D during post-production which is the reason for the lousy 3D on most films that movie goers (like myself more than a few times) get duped into spending the extra money on. : Tangent: The best use of 3D I've ever seen has been James Cameron's Avatar and Life of Pi because they were actually SHOT in 3D. : End Tangent: The average price of a 3D movie ticket in the U.S. ranges anywhere from $13-$15, depending on your location, compared to anywhere from $7-$10 for a regular, 2D ticket. Conversely, an IMAX movie ticket costs $15+. IMAX is the largest film format in the world at 70mm, making any image captured very high quality, as well as capturing double the image of regular, 35mm film. Christopher Nolan has long been an adamant supporter of shooting on IMAX and has expressed a fierce opposition for shooting on 3D, citing "Films are 3-D. The whole point of photography is that its three-dimensional. The thing with stereoscopic imaging is it gives each audience member an individual perspective. Its well suited to video games and other immersive technologies, but if you're looking for an audience experience, stereoscopic is hard to embrace." (DGA interview)
The Avengers was released in 2D, 3D, AND IMAX, grossing $1.5 billion worldwide and $623 million domestically. The Dark Knight Rises was only released in 2D and IMAX, and grossed $1.08 billion worldwide and $448 million domestically. The films are not separated by much, in spite of The Avenger's being released in one more format than TDKR, increasing its gross by approximately $13-$15 per ticket sold. That fact coupled with the bottom line that The Dark Knight Trilogy has raked in a $2.45 billion dollars in worldwide gross according to Forbes (making The Dark Knight Trilogy the second-highest grossing super hero franchise of all-time behind Sam Raimi's Spider-Man trilogy) will (hopefully) open some eyes and lead to the finality of 3D conversion, at the very least.