Is this the death of 3D?

There’s an interesting article in Britain’s The Independent this morning talking about the huge flop that Mars Needs Moms was, and what it means for the film industry. It turns out that after the huge financial and critical failure that Mars turned out to be, Disney closed down ImageMovers Digital, Robert Zemeckis’ studio that turned out The Polar Express, A Christmas Carol, and the truly awful Beowolf. Not only that, Disney cancelled Zemeckis’ planned remake of Yellow Submarine. All of this begs the question: How can Hollywood afford to keep shoveling out crap and expect us to pay for it? In 3D no less? Hit the break for three more paragraphs of great writing.

Ultimately, they can’t. Right now, Hollywood is Hollywood’s worst enemy. Stifling creativity, overcharging people at the box office, and generally being the worst people in the world (What can I say? Being resentful is one of my better qualities.) You know who’s to blame for the outrageous 3D ticket prices? Disney. Their 3D tech is in every 3D cinema in the country (world maybe?), so now each theatre has to not only rent out the (very expensive) projector, but now charge their customer an even higher premium, just to watch a movie with some (visual) depth.

That hasn’t stopped Mr. Average Movie-Goer, though. Avatar is the highest grossing movie of all time, and I guarantee that the majority of folks saw it in 3D Cameron-Vision (patent pending). What does this mean for Hollywood, though? Well, it means that producers think they can shovel out any piece of crap they want to, shoot it (or post convert it) in 3D, and make fifteen bucks a ticket on it. We saw it last year with the onslaught of awful 3D movies, like Alice in Wonderland, Clash of the Titans, Shrek Forever After, and The Last Airbender.

There’s hope, though. With the failure of Mars Needs Moms, maybe Hollywood is starting to realize that the general public is looking for something new. That we’re hip to the game Hollywood’s been playing for years. But then again, Hop comes out next week, and you can bet your bottom dollar that people will watch the sh*t out of that one.