Digital 3D is a key element of the modern cinema offer.
Modern 3D is fundamentally different from the 3D cinema audiences have seen in the past. Digital technology allows the right eye/left eye images which create the stereoscopic effect to be matched perfectly in every frame, eradicating the previous problems caused as the brain needed to work harder to make sense of the two images, leading quickly to tiredness and even nausea on the part of the viewer.
Digital 3D has attracted the foremost creative talents of our age – James Cameron, Steven Spielberg, Peter Jackson, Ang Li and Martin Scorsese amongst them.
A key tipping point for 3D cinema was the release in 2009 of James Cameron’s Avatar, at the time the highest grossing global film of all time, earning almost $2.8 billion worldwide. Subsequent highlights have included Life of Pi, Hugo and Gravity.
While the popularity of the format has in recent years undoubtedly waned, for the right film and when the 3D is done well, then there are still clear signs of audience demand for 3D, nowhere more so than with the recent release of Avatar: The Way of Water, the sequel to the hugely-successful Avatar mentioned above. While still on release, that new film has already made an incredible £60 million at the UK box office in a matter of weeks, around 60 per cent of that from 3D screenings.
