Theater owners behind on 3-D projectors
SACO, Maine -- To hear the folks in Hollywood talk about it, improved 3-D technology and the quality films that are quickly lining up behind it represent nothing short of a moviegoing revolution. Tell that to the folks who still live hours from the nearest 3-D-equipped theater.
For them, all the extradimensional summer offerings and slick marketing campaigns amount to nothing more than a big, frustrating tease.
For them, the movie world is still flat.
Because of the credit crunch and high cost of upgrading equipment, the vast majority of theaters don't yet have the ability to show 3-D movies, a situation that affects the nation's furthest-flung areas most. In Maine, you can count on one hand the number of theaters that showed Pixar Animation's "Up" in 3-D when it opened late last week.
Those who haven't made the costly transition run the risk of losing customers who're willing to travel to see it elsewhere in 3-D, said Bob Collins, marketing director of Zyacorp Entertainment's Cinemagic, which has been offering 3-D at its Saco theater for more than a year.
"A chain that doesn't have the 3-D technology, they're going to be in a very tough situation because they're basically going to be turning away customers," he said.
As it stands, 26% of 5,756 cinemas across the country have one or more screens capable of showing 3-D movies, but that number is expected to grow as financing becomes available later in the summer, said Patrick Corcoran from the National Association of Theater Owners.
All told, there were only 2,385 3-D screens out of a total of 38,853 screens nationwide at the end of May, according to the theater group.
Northern New England is among the places where 3-D is scarce. RealD and Dolby Digital, which are aggressively deploying 3-D in theaters, say they have equipped six cinemas in Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont, so far. Other rural states face similar 3-D shortages.
There would be thousands more screens converted to the format if not for the recession. Two separate financing deals that would've brought 3-D to more than 20,000 movie screens across the country collapsed because of the economic meltdown, Corcoran said.
