Try convincing Joe Consumer who probably already has a 3D TV in his lounge room of that though.

It is a time of crisis for entertainment 3D. On one hand, its continued existence is secure, thanks to the huge revenues flowing from the big hits, Avatar, The Avengers, and Toy Story 3, the three lead box office revenues for 3D. Other movies bringing in good 3D revenues include reissues. The Lion King and Titanic have come out of the past to score again with 3D. In addition, Martin Scorsese’s Hugo is a critical dar­ling; it won an Academy Award and has brought new audiences in to see 3D. The increase in interest in 3D worldwide has influenced the creation of many more movies outside the Hollywood studio system. China, France, Spain, and Germany are releasing new 3D movies. China’s Flying Swords of Dragon Gate, by sword-and-sorcery veteran, Tsui Hark, is a worldwide leader in box office revenues with box office receipts reaching $80 million.

Clearly, the 3D movie market is moving. In the U.S. revenues from 3D movies are going down. People are not necessarily choosing to see big movies in 3D when it’s offered. They’re more discerning, and all in all, the movies have to be better. There hasn’t been another Avatar in a while. The closest thing has been The Avengers, which has been the biggest money-maker for 3D in a while. It’s all a matter of quality. Filmmakers know it, and the audience knows it. So far, 3D movies still bring in considerably more money than 2D movies.
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What is going wrong at the moment is that content optimized for 3D in a big movie theater is more often than not too subdued for the small screen in the living room. What? That’s right: the majority of content creators have been slow to recognize, or they can’t afford to recognize, that content needs to be created differently for 3D in the home than it is for 3D on the big screen. And, what’s worse is that the same is true for content that will be displayed on a tablet screen or an autostereoscopic mobile phone or game device like the Nintendo 3ds.

Studios have already been looking at the math to balance the added cost of creating 3D content against the delta of increased revenues for 3D theatrical screenings. So far the numbers are holding up, but that might not be true for 3D in the home when producers have to think about re-working content for dif­ferent screens and environments.

Then there’s the patchy transition to digital download and video on demand. For the past five years or so, sales and rentals of DVDs and Blu-rays have been decreasing. However, the Digital Entertainment Group announced in April 2012 a sales increase of 23% year over year. The group credits the increase to sales of Blu-ray players over the holidays. Some industry watchers also credit an interest in 3D for increased sales in DVD, but it’s still too early to make any predictions, especially since consumers’ early experiences with 3D in the home have been less than satisfying.