I went to see Toy Story 3 last week at the Grove here in Los Angeles and it cost me $16.50 to see the movie. This was, of course, due to the additional fee the theater chains are charging for this Avatar-led glut of 3D movies coming out. I've paid the fee before and never really thought anything about it until last week while I was waiting for the movie to start. Why was I being charged an extra $3.50 premium for the 3D?
One of the things that's interesting about the movie industry is tickets are the same price regardless of what you're seeing. A couple of weeks ago I caught the documentary Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work at the Arclight. The movie's pretty good but it couldn't have cost very much money to produce. It's just people following Rivers around for a year. However, I paid the same money to see that as I paid to see Iron Man, a movie with an exponentially bigger budget and marketing costs. This would never happen in, say, the world of live theater. Seeing Denzel Washington in Fences on Broadway will cost you more money than seeing an Off-Off Broadway show.
So as I was waiting for TS3 to begin I started to think: what exactly and I being charged for when I pay the 3D premium? It can't be to compensate a bigger budgeted film since something like the Final Destination series' 3D movie would have had a much lower budget than something like Prince of Persia. Is it to pay for the glasses? If Pacific Theaters is charging $3.50 a person for 3D and they are able to use a single pair of 3D glasses for at least 5 screenings a day then they are making $17.50 a day off a pair of 3D glasses. How much can the glasses cost to produce? And why can't I just buy my own pair and bring them to the cinema with me and avoid the upcharge altogether?
I'd never really thought of this before, I'd just played along. But why should there be a premium charge for 3D?
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