Katzenberg to 3-D movie fans: Open your wallets

Ever since Jeffrey Katzenberg boasted this September that sometime soon "all movies are going to be made in 3-D," I've had a nagging feeling that there must be a catch to all this 3-D ballyhoo, since, let's face it, do you really want--or need--to see "Doubt" or "Milk" or most of the other Oscar contenders in 3-D anytime soon? (Though I am looking forward to the first ad that trumpets: " 'The Reader': See It Now As You've Never Seen Before--In 3-D!")

As I've said before, I am not a knee-jerk 3-D detractor. I've sampled most of the 3-D reels in recent months and can imagine a host of movies being great candidates for 3-D, including the next "Ice Age," Tim Burton's "Alice in Wonderland,"and "Iron Man 2." It's just that in an era of preplanned obsolescence, where I'm supposed to toss out all of the electronic equipment in my home (computers, TVs, cellphones, etc.) every 15 minutes, I've become a little suspicious when someone insists that even my happy movie theater-going is suddenly in dire need of being entirely reinvented, based on the vague promise that 3-D will provide a far more dazzling experience, which has been Katzenberg's sales pitch so far.

Thanks to Variety, which did a good job of covering a recent meeting between Katzenberg and a scrum of Wall Street analysts, I'm beginning to see why the DreamWorks Animation chief is really so eager to push us all into 3-D paradise. Surprise: He wants to improve his profit margins. It turns out that Katzenberg envisions us paying a $5 premium every time we see a 3-D movie, greatly enhancing both DreamWorks' and theater owners' profits. As Jeffrey's chief financial officer Lew Coleman put it: "Because the costs of 3-D are fixed, there is substantial leverage and most of the extra revenue falls to the bottom line."

Read More Article...

Related Posts by Categories

Widget by Hoctro | Jack Book