New 3D Technology in Movie Theatres: Creating an Unfair Advantage for Major Studios?

Perhaps it isn't right thinking to think that all the Regal-owned theatres (and, later, all the rest) will only show 3D or digital films once they get the equipment upgrades that are several steps closer to being realized at the time of this writing. The media company Digital Cinema Implementation Partners was created several years ago with the direct purpose of making sure your local movie theatre will have digital technology and 3D projectors that will supposedly compel you to leave the comforts of your home to sit around sit-kickers, candy wrapper crinklers and people sitting next to you who can't stop talking. Perhaps that's an exciting prospect for the renaissance of movie theatres. However, there may be some very subtle business maneuvers on the horizon here that potentially could end up with Hollywood getting into quasi anti-trust mode again for the first time in sixty years.

It basically starts with the above-mentioned DCIP organization where Regal Entertainment Group, AMC Entertainment and Cinemark USA (the three biggest honchos in movie exhibition in the country) teamed up to make sure 14,000 movie theatres in America and Canada get equipment upgrades so they can go digital. You've likely heard about theatres in the last couple of years being a bit hesitant about investing in digital technology due to cost and knowing if it'll ultimately turn a profit in the long run in the age when watching large-screen HDTV's in our homes might arguably be just as good. Also, the challenge has always been whether people really care if a movie is in digital in a movie multiplex.

Now that the DCIP is getting their dibs into making sure theatres also acquire 3D projectors so studios currently making 3D movies can have a comfortable home, you can see that your local theatre is a good bet to become a digital 3D (courtesy of the company Real D) showroom in the coming decade. Yes, this truly is exciting and very well could bring people out in droves from the confines of their entertainment-fortified homes and revolutionize film. With revolutions in film, though, come opportunities to try to make the most money over everybody else through any legal means possible. Even before the talkie era started in 1927, the major studios in Hollywood didn't bother to follow the law when they acquired ownership in thousands of this country's movie theatres and painting them as monopolies when anti-trust laws were already long in place by the federal government.

In an article I wrote here on May 21 noting the 60^th anniversary of a landmark Supreme Court case against the major Hollywood studios that stripped their movie theatre ownership, it gave a reminder of how brazen Hollywood once was and still are when they have something incredible they can use to reel the masses in. Based on recent comments from Jeffrey Katzenberg and other industry giants, they can see the dollar signs in the eyes of just about every studio in Hollywood who will want to shoot a movie in digital or 3D.

But then, not every movie will probably want to be shot in digital or 3D...

Will there be another war between the major studios and independent producers?

News that 1,400 Regal-owned movie theatres will now get the Real D 3D technology probably created a bit of a worry with other studios or independents who don't want to shoot a movie in 3D or have the budgets to do it anyway. The same goes with shooting in digital that Hollywood is trying to make a universal process so all filmmakers will be united. But when theatres controlled by the exhibitors running DCIP get all that technology into all of our local movie houses--what will that do to other films that choose not to use any of that technology?

As mentioned earlier, it obviously won't affect a non-digital non-3D film from getting into those digital-fortified theatres. However, when a theatre plays up that it has digital and Real D technology, the films that are made in those formats are going to get heavier marketing and become the true showcase of every movie house in the country. Only some of the major studios in Hollywood are employing Real D and digital in their films--and it starts to tilt them in the direct of an unfair advantage without necessarily directly breaking any anti-trust laws. Perhaps it's a way to skirt the old anti-trust laws passed in the United States in the late 19^th century. It's also a way to get payback after the Supreme Court basically screwed over Hollywood in 1948 and made them hemorrhage money for 25 years until movies started making three-figure box office returns in the 1970's.

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Well, do most of the public really care about seeing movies in the Real D process and digital? It's said that the digital projection system in movie theatres is out of this world and can even be used for live feeds. Real D uses a new 3D system that lets you experience the 3D effect naturally rather than getting the headaches the old anaglyph glasses always caused. But much of the American populace now take into consideration the rising admission price and the general rudeness of other people around them when home looks more comfortable than ever.

It's ironic, too, that Disney/Pixar are going to be the first ones to benefit from the Real D technology in thousands of theatres across the country. In the 1930's and 40's, Walt Disney sided with the independent studios as they battled the monopolies of MGM, Paramount and 20^th Century Fox for distribution of films in those studio-owned theatres. Now Disney will possibly, for the first time, be one of the most powerful studios in the country along with the other major studios who have the bucks to start going digital and using the Real D system.

Independent film may not be the same after this bombardment when they already have trouble getting distribution and focus more on story over gimmicks. This could be mainstream Hollywood getting close to monopolistic territory again unless the DCIP holds their promise that they'll help all filmmakers try to cross over to this technology so they'll benefit.

Seeing whether non-gimmicked story-oriented films or 3D/digital films (or hopefully a combination of both) will get people out of the house and into the chaotic world of a movie theatre will be an interesting business battle to keep an eye on. And it'll hopefully be one the Supreme Court won't have to decide...