AFI BLOG: Media and Technology

The Wall Street Journal

Regal Entertainment Group, the nation’s largest cinema chain, signed a deal to bring 1,500 more 3D screens from RealD Corp. to its theaters. The pact underscores the importance theater owners are attaching to 3D technology, as they fight to keep customers coming to movie theaters rather than watching DVDs at home.

The deal for the new screens, which will roll out over the next two years, will bring RealD, of Beverly Hills, Calif., to a total of more than 3,500 screens in the U.S. That cements RealD’s lead in 3D projection technology, and may make it difficult for competitors such as Dolby Laboratories Inc., which has about 40 3D screens in the U.S., to catch up.

A Dolby spokesman says 3D rollout is in its earliest stages, allowing room for multiple players. There are some 30,000 movie screens in the U.S. All 3D systems create a startling sense of depth, with images that appear to pop off the screen. Viewers must use special glasses to see the effects.

A top incentive for Regal, of Knoxville, Tenn., was the number of 3D movies coming out in coming months. “Journey to the Center of the Earth,” a remake of the classic from Time Warner Inc.’s New Line Cinema, and “Bolt,” a Walt Disney Co. movie about a performing dog, are both expected to do well at the box office. Next year, about a dozen movies are expected to come out in 3D.

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