The newest trend in the film exhibition market is 3-D.
In case you haven’t heard, the Hannah Montana/Miley Cyrus “Best
of Both Worlds” concert film (shown in 3-D) grossed $31 million opening weekend
and is well on its way to doing $80 million at the domestic box office. What
enabled this film to do well was digital projection – and also better 3-D
technology. Digital projection is the
new frontier – offering cheaper distribution and new opportunities for live event
projection. It also takes 3-D technology
from the blue-red, headache-producing 3-D glasses (circa 1950) to a new “I felt
like I was there” theater experience. Wikipedia has an interesting
history of 3-D film.
Popularization of 3-D depends on two things – 3-D technology
and digital projection. There has been progress
on both fronts. The Polar Express 3-D used circular polarized light, a process
where the light is polarized in a clockwise pattern for the left eye and a
counter-clockwise pattern for the right eye, greatly diminishing the head-ache
producing spillage effect of older 3-D technology.
Digitalization of theaters is crankin’ even as theaters are
wrestling with the change-over costs.
Without it, no 3-D Hanna. The
changeover cost is around $75,000, per screen, and despite studio incentives of
up to $1,000 a film, that is a big nut to swallow.
One technology company leading the march to digital cinema is
Access Integrated Technologies, Inc. (AIXD).
It has a bunch of cash, despite
some consistent burn, and has done deals with a solid block of major studios. Check
out the latest press release from AIXD. AIXD got a jump on many competitors by
bypassing beta testing of its equipment and going right to rollout. That business decision was aggressive, but it
looks
like there have a big piece of the market as a result.
What I noticed on AccessIT’s press release was that the
major theaters, Regal and AMC, are not on their client list. That
could spell trouble. But tough to deny that theaters want 3-D capability
– now. Check out this Q4
2007 earnings call transcript with the Regal Entertainment Group. Lots of chatter about 3-D.