Theaters to Start Charging Less for 3D and More for Everything Else

Tired of the whole 3D movie thing? You’re not alone. The 3D bubble has burst — if a movies fails to capture the public’s attention, 3D no longer does anything to change their minds, and when audiences are given the choice between a 3D and 2D, more often than not these days they take the less-expensive 2D option.

All evidence points toward the latest 3D fad being over, and yet Hollywood continues to stubbornly churn out 3D at a steady rate. What are theater owners to do as people flock to 2D-only movies like The Hunger Games while turning their backs on recent 3D flops like Ghost Rider and John Carter? Well, major theater chain Spotlight Theaters has decided the solution is to eliminate the two to three dollar premium charge on 3D movies, while jacking up the cost of regular 2D movies to make up the difference. It’s likely most other theater chains will soon follow suit.

So yeah, on the surface this seems pretty ridiculous — 3D was always just a gimmick to entice people to pay a couple dollars extra to go to the movies. So, now that 3D’s no longer enticing audiences, the solution is to increase prices across the board? Have theater owners never heard of supply and demand?

In reality, this doesn’t have much to do with 3D. This is going to be a huge year for movies in general — 2012 will see the release of Dark Knight Rises, Prometheus and a new Pixar movie to name just a few. If ever there was a year for an across-the-board ticket price increase, this is it. In other words, theaters owners were going to get more money out of us this year by hook or crook. At least we’re getting a bit of a 3D discount out of the deal — they could have raised the prices on regular movies and kept the 3D premium charge and every man, woman and child would still have gone to see f–king Batman, Spider-Man and The Hobbit.

via Boing Boing

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