Film fans get ready to enter another dimension
Gone are the cardboard glasses used by millions to watch thriller Jaws 3D in the early ‘80s.
Instead the Dublin 4 set are flocking to the Movies@Dundrum cinema where they get sunglasses-style spectacles to watch Disney’s family favourite Meet the Robinsons in 3D.
“The effects are amazing and you can hear the audience gasp as they see characters coming towards them,” said general manager Elaine Grange.
“And in the film when the dinosaur’s tail comes at them across the auditorium you can even see them ducking for cover.”
The cinema has had the latest “real 3D” cinema projector installed along with a new type of screen so movies can be shown in real-life three-dimensions.
“They’re all asking if we’ll be doing a re-run of Jaws 3D from the 1980s,” said Ms Grange.
The Dundrum picture house is also screening the Robinsons film in standard format but sales of tickets for the 3D version are outselling the traditional shows by 2:1.
Ms Grange says the cinema is the first in Ireland to have installed the equipment, which is available at only 700 cinemas in the US.
Today’s 3D technology is far more advanced than that used in the 1950s, the heyday of gimmicky 3D films.
Previous 3D systems projected two images on the movie screen, one for each eye. That required the use of red and blue lenses or even glasses with mechanised shutters that opened and closed quickly to separate the images.
With newer systems, moviegoers still need to don special glasses but not the cheap cardboard variety with blue and red lenses.
Instead, special polarised lenses will separate the stereo images projected on specially coated screens.
Commentators believe the 3D format — which all but disappeared in the 1980s — is undergoing a resurgence as Hollywood studios pin their hopes on the new format technology.
Already directors like Steven Spielberg, Lord of the Rings ace Peter Jackson and George Lucas are planning to release 3D films.
Jeffrey Katzenberg, chief executive of DreamWorks Animation SKG, said his studio might start exclusively releasing movies in the format as early as 2009 with its Monsters vs Aliens.
In the US, Meet the Robinsons took in $25.1 million (€18.7m) in its opening weekend with a quarter of ticket sales coming from the 581 screens showing the film in 3D.
The industry sees the technology as crucial to their future, luring people back to cinemas for an experience that cannot be matched by sophisticated home-theatre systems.
Cinema is also battling competition from internet downloads that will soon deliver high-definition films directly to homes.
THIS year’s tips for the top (provisional release dates in brackets)
Spider-Man 3 (May 4).
Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End (May 25).
Ocean’s Thirteen (June 8).
Shrek the Third (June 29).
Die Hard 4.0 (July 6).
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (July 13).
The Simpsons (July 27).
Transformers (July 27).
The Bourne Ultimatum (August 17).
