Monocolumn: The 3D Films Coming At You

Monocolumn is Monocle’s daily bulletin of news and opinion. Catch up with previous editions here.

After almost 30 years and weeks of heavy-duty PR, press junkets, special trailer screenings and a soundtrack launch, Tron: Legacy – the sequel of the 1982 cutting-edge sci-fi Tron, is being released, adding another title to the long list of this Christmas’s 3-D bonanza.

The film will not disappoint film fanatics, at least not the ones with realistic expectations – it entertains with mind-blowing digital effects but simultaneously falls flat with its predicable storyline and naff script. Still, it’s enough to meet the appétit of the world’s increasingly large audience of three-dimensional films.

The ghost of 3-D has surreptitiously but persistently haunted moviegoers for decades. From the 1903’s Edwin S. Porter’s ground breaker The Great Train Robbery through to the three dimensional porn films in the 1970s or the loud sci-fi Metalstorm: The Destruction of Jared-Syn in 1983, to the latest cheesy horror films, the third dimension has been digging, slowly and surely, into our film preferences.

Since last year, that third dimension has gone hand in blue hand with James Cameron’s Avatar, one of the biggest success stories in cinematic history. Released in December 2009, it was one of the most important 3-D films ever released – and most profitable. In its opening weekend, $62m (€46m) of its gross revenue was generated from 3-D screens. It made only $14m (€10m) in 2-D theatres.

It’s not just the special effects of the big blockbusters that has got the world suddenly donning ugly goggles. Last winter also saw the release of Robert Zemeckis’s Christmas Carol. Making almost $320m (€240m), it proved that even 3-D animated takes on classics such as Dickens could keep the cash rolling in, especially during the Christmas holidays.

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