3-D TAKES OVER THE BOX OFFICE IN A BIG WAY!

The film going experience has changed in a huge way. All you have to do is look at the current highest grossing film of all time Avatar and you’ll come to realize that the way in which we view films on the big screen will forever be changed. 3-D technology is nothing new, in fact, in the ‘80s (and even in several films prior) anaglyph 3-D technology (the use of the red and blue gels in glasses) was very prevalent but it was only a gimmick to get audiences in the doors. Due to the growing popularity of the home VHS boom less people were going to the theater and so Hollywood unburied the 3-D technology as a way to get people to go back to the theaters. This worked then and it’s working now.

Such films as Alfred Hitchcock’s Dial “M” For Murder, Amityville 3-D, Friday the 13th Part 3-D, Jaws 3-D, The Creature From the Black Lagoon, and many others used the anaglyph process but today this process has all but been abandoned (the last film to be released theatrically through this process was the remake Night of the Living Dead 3-D in 2006) but over the years many filmmakers have been using and developing a digital 3-D process that would better integrate with the digital media (as opposed to actual film). Director Robert Rodriguez experimented with this with his early films Spy Kids 3-D: Game Over and The Adventures of Shark Boy & Lava Girl, but there have been many animated films that were released simultaneously in both 2-D and 3-D formats (such as Fly Me To The Moon, Ice Age 3: Dawn of the Dinosaurs, Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs, Coraline, and Up, to name a few. Like in the ‘80s the horror genre has also taken a stab at the new 3-D digital process with My Bloody Valentine 3-D and The Final Destination, to name a few, but even though these films did great business it wasn’t until director James Cameron’s Avatar was unleashed on audiences in December of last year that a multitude of people were able to experience the new digital 3-D technology first hand. The huge Box Office returns of this film worldwide have ensured movie studios that audiences have embraced this new technology and it is here to stay! With over 20 films being prepped to be released simultaneously in both 2-D and 3-D formats (and Disney claiming that all of their future animated releases will do this as well) it does not appear that we will be seeing less films over the next few years.

Following are the highest grossing 3-D films of all time, both standard anaglyph and digital 3-D.

1. AVATAR ($600 million and counting)
2. UP ($293 million)
3. MONSTERS VS. ALIENS (198.4 million)
4. ICE AGE: DAWN OF THE DINOSAURS ($196.6 million)
5. CLOUDY WITH A CHANCE OF MEATBALLS ($122.7 million)
6. G-FORCE ($119.4 million)
7. BOLT ($114.1 million)
8. SPY KIDS 3-D: GAME OVER ($111.8 million)
9. JOURNEY TO THE CENTER OF THE EARTH in 3-D ($101.8 million)
10. MEET THE ROBINSONS ($97.8 million)
11. BEOWULF ($82.3 million)
12. CORALINE ($75.3 million)
13. THE NIGHTMARE BEFORE CHRISTMAS ($75.1 million)
14. THE FINAL DESTINATION ($66.5 million)
15. HANNAH MONTANA/MILEY CYRUS: BEST OF BOTH WORLDS CONCERT ($65.3)