So, you know how after Avatar made roughly eleventy billion dollars in a week, everyone in Hollywood decided to put their movies out in 3-D? Apparently, nobody thought to check in with the movie-theater chains before doing so: With How to Train Your Dragon (in 3-D!) out next Friday, Clash of the Titans (in 3-D!) out a week after that, and the blockbusting Alice in Wonderland (in … you get it) still sticking around, it looks like there won’t be enough screens to accommodate all the extra-dimensional fare. That’s right: The nation is now heading into its first-ever 3-D-movie-theater shortage.
The studios involved — Paramount, Warner Bros., and Disney, respectively — are scrapping for every screen they can get, with Paramount even threatening to not supply 2-D versions of Dragon if theaters don’t clear up 3-D space. We’re curious to see how the mess gets sorted out in the coming weeks, and certainly hope it involves some public Hollywood fat-cat beefing. Meanwhile, we’re comforted to know that the crisis shouldn’t last long, as the three largest theater chains have recently secured $660 million in financing to double the number of their 3-D screens. This is sensible, as we can only imagine moviegoers will soon forget that lame old 2-D is even an option.
’Dragon’ versus ‘Titans’ versus ‘Alice’ in fight over 3-D screens [Company Town/LAT]