quote: Lyle Romer

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If 5 years from now all movies (live and animated) were produced in 3D it could be the differentiator that makes it worthwhile to see something in the theater.

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quote: Lyle Romer

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Speaking of quality, is it true that Real-D is not really full 2k resolution for some reason? I remember reading that a while ago.

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quote: Tristan Lane

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Triple-flash will ensure smooth movement

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quote: Mike Blakesley

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DreamWorks Chief Executive Jeffrey Katzenberg told analysts in a separate session that making animated films in 3D would add $10 million to $15 million to production costs, but he considered it a worthwhile expense.

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I assume that $10-$15 million figure Katzenberg mentions for the additional cost of 3D is for rendering a "2nd eye" for 3D CGI animated movies. It shouldn't cost nearly that much to shoot a 2nd eye camera angle for a live action movie.

Another thing I find odd...that $10-$15 million additional is considered a worthwhile cost. The added cost of shooting a 35mm movie in 65mm instead can run under $1 million. But I guess that isn't worthwhile.

 

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Posted by Jarryd Beard (Member # 2543) on 03-30-2007, 07:46 PM:
 

quote: Bobby Henderson

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RealD runs at 48fps. Each "eye" sees 24fps.

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quote: Bobby Henderson

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The RealD Z-filter that swings in front of the projector lens reduces some light.

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quote: Mike Blakesley

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Besides, some movies (kiddie ones mainly) might need 3D, but a well told story doesn't.

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quote: Jarryd Beard

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I could have sworn our Christie tech said it was 144fps. In other words, he said six frames are shown for every normal (1/24 sec) frame. In that 1/24 of a second, the right and left eye pictures alternate three times for a total of six frames... three unchanging left, three unchanging right.

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quote: Jarryd Beard

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In the Christie setup, the projector actually increases bulb power once it receives the 3-D cue. Once again, this is what I've learned from our Christie tech. I'm not 100% sure of this information.

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quote: Mike Williams

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I think 3D is a gimmick that will wear off as soon as people realize the quality will be lower and the glasses can be an annoyance.

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quote: Bobby Henderson

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Further, imaging chips like the 3-chip 2K DLP units in Christie CP2000 projectors don't "scale." It doesn't work like a CRT gun. The pixel grid is very much a very fixed thing. There are different framing formats that fit within the maximum area of the 2K DLP chip's 2048 X 1080 pixel grid. 1998 X 1080 is one of them.

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quote: Bobby Henderson

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As to reduced light output, yes, the image is not quite as bright. The RealD Z-filter that swings in front of the projector lens reduces some light. The silver screen does as well. I'm not sure what effect the higher frame rate has on reducing light levels.

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quote: Jarryd Beard

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2(eyes)*3(alternations)*24(different fps)=144fps.

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quote: Mark J. Marshall

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There's a huge amount of strobing in the current 3D setups that manifests itself more clearly as movement on the screen increases.

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quote: Bobby Henderson

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I'm under the impression the techs from Christie simply adjust the lamp for a certain balanced level once the silver screen is installed. A level ramped up even higher could result in hot spots on the screen. Is the lamp power in a CP2000 projector something that can be cued and controlled via a Doremi DCP-2000 server and Christie DCA21 automation?

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quote:

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More movies to be offered in 3-D
By GARY GENTILE, AP Business Writer
Sun Apr 8, 11:07 PM ET

By the end of the decade, Darth Vader could be rattling sabers with his enemies above the heads of moviegoers, and Buzz Lightyear could be flying off the screen on his way to infinity and beyond.

For real — or at least the cinematic version of real: 3-D.

A growing number of blockbuster, live-action films and animated movies are expected to be offered in in-your-face 3-D in the next few years, as thousands of theaters are outfitted with the special projectors and screens needed to show the films.

Jeffrey Katzenberg, chief executive of DreamWorks Animation SKG Inc., is so gung-ho about 3-D that he has said his studio might start exclusively releasing movies in the format as early as 2009 with its "Monsters vs. Aliens."

"For Memorial Day weekend 2009, I would like to see 3,800 locations and 6,000 screens that we can put our movie on. And if they are there, then we will be exclusive in 3-D," Katzenberg said at a recent investors conference.

So far, moviegoers have reacted positively to the few 3-D films that have been released in recent years.

"Meet the Robinsons" from The Walt Disney Co. debuted March 30, earning $25.1 million in its opening weekend.

More than a quarter of that revenue came from the 581 screens across the country that showed the film in 3-D, the company said. Those moviegoers were even willing to pay a few extra bucks to don special glasses and watch characters leave the screen.

A number of high-profile filmmakers have 3-D projects in the works, including Peter Jackson, Robert Zemeckis and James Cameron.

Walt Disney Co. has released 3-D versions of three animated films and recently signed a deal with Zemeckis to produce more. The studio is also rumored to be making the sequel "Toy Story 3" in 3-D, a report the studio declined to confirm.

These days, 3-D films are more than just a gimmick.

For theater owners and studios, the technology could be a lifesaver, luring people back to multiplexes for an experience that cannot be matched by sophisticated home-theater systems or stolen by pirates with hidden camcorders.

The theater industry is also battling competition from video games and other alternative entertainment along with Internet downloads that will soon deliver high-definition films directly to homes.

Film exhibition companies looking to protect their business believe 3-D will boost revenue. Some industry executives think theaters can add as much as 50 percent to the cost of a ticket for a 3-D feature.

"If we can sell 10 percent to 15 percent of our tickets annually at a higher price point, that's a real mover of the needle," Mike Campbell, chief executive of Regal Entertainment Group, the nation's largest theater chain, said at the investors conference.

About 700 theaters across the country are now outfitted with 3-D technology, with thousands of others moving to spend the $17,000 needed to install the equipment.

Moviemakers, meanwhile, estimate that making a movie in 3-D can add as much as $15 million to the cost.

Today's 3-D technology is far more advanced than that used in the 1950s, the heyday of gimmicky 3-D films.

Previous 3-D systems projected two images on the movie screen, one for each eye. That required the use of red and blue lenses or even glasses with mechanized shutters that opened and closed quickly to separate the images.

With newer systems, moviegoers still need to don special glasses but not the cheap cardboard variety with blue and red lenses.

Instead, special polarized lenses will separate the stereo images projected on specially coated screens.

RealD, a Beverly Hills company, is the leader in modern 3-D with systems that will be operating on about 1,000 screens by the end of the year.

Its technology uses a special movie screen painted with a silver oxide to direct more light back to the viewer instead of scattering wavelengths the way normal screens do.

The theaters also use digital projectors that show movies stored in bits on a computer hard disk rather than traditional film.

Dolby Laboratories Inc. recently unveiled plans to market its own 3-D technology that would work with existing movie screens.

"The momentum is gathering, and I think this is probably the most exciting thing from a filmmaking and filmgoing experience that has happened in my time in the business," Katzenberg said. "There's nothing more compelling than this."

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quote: Gary Gentile, AP

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Some industry executives think theaters can add as much as 50 percent to the cost of a ticket for a 3-D feature.

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quote: Gary Gentile, AP

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Its technology uses a special movie screen painted with a silver oxide to direct more light back to the viewer instead of scattering wavelengths the way normal screens do.

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quote: Bobby Henderson

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I'm even wondering if the couple bucks extra added to the ticket price will remain tolerable to viewers once the novelty of this version of 3D wears off.

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quote:

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Showing at theaters: urgency of digital shift

By Josh Friedman, Times Staff Writer
April 9, 2007

The revolution in moviegoing will be digital, theater owner Bill Campbell knows.

But Campbell, who runs independent theaters in Sheridan, Wyo., and Miles City, Mont., isn't ready to take up such an expensive cause just yet.

"I'm still using film projectors that were built in the 1950s and I can fix them myself," Campbell said. "What if your digital server goes down? Dark screens are death to the theater industry."

For moviegoers, Hollywood's shift to digital cinema will mean clearer pictures, more 3-D offerings, movie houses that can easily add to the number of theaters showing popular films and event programs such as sports and concerts.

For theater owners, it means lower costs because prints will be eliminated. It also creates a new marketing hook to get people into the seats.

With incentives like that, the movie industry's transformation from prints to digital projectors logically should take place sooner, not later. But for nearly a decade it has been hampered by the high cost to convert and disputes over how studios and exhibitors will foot the bill.

Finally, however, digital cinema is slowly gaining traction despite holdouts such as Campbell. About 4,000 of the world's roughly 150,000 screens are digitally equipped compared with 1,700 a year ago, according to Texas Instruments Inc., which licenses the leading digital cinema technology.

By year-end the chip company expects the count to reach 7,000, with the majority of those conversions in the U.S., which has about 38,000 screens overall.

After moving at a snail's pace, the transition has taken on a new urgency as theater owners compete with increasingly sophisticated home entertainment systems and other diversions such as video games and the Internet. Digital cinema was front and center at the recent ShoWest industry conference for exhibitors in Las Vegas, with much of the discussion about the $100,000 cost per screen.

If the switch takes an exceptionally long time, "I believe there will not be a cinema business here anymore," said Drew Kaza, an executive vice president at British theater chain Odeon Cinemas Ltd., addressing attendees at the conference. "We've got to get real about this."

But digital boosters say the industry is finally getting serious about the conversion.

"There is typically a love-hate relationship between studios and exhibitors, but this time they're working together to make sure it happens," said Shea Wallon, vice president of the sports and entertainment group at GE Commercial Finance, a backer of digital cinema.

GE Commercial last year provided a $217-million credit line for Christie Digital Systems Inc. and Access Integrated Technologies Inc., which are rapidly installing their projectors and servers in theaters.

Hollywood and theater owners see huge potential benefits.

Studios eventually could save a total of $1 billion a year in distribution costs. Producing and shipping 35-millimeter films costs roughly $1,200 per print, but sending digital files or satellite transmissions can slash that expense by 90%, according to industry estimates.

For now the savings are theoretical as studios make a long-term bet on the benefits of digital. They are subsidizing the installation of digital systems at U.S. theater chains by paying "virtual print fees" to the manufacturers, and they still must make thousands of film prints.

Cheaper distribution could enable smaller films to be screened more widely, said John Fithian, president of the National Assn. of Theatre Owners. The high cost of distribution is a major impediment to independent films, he said.

Helping give the conversion a boost is the resurgence of 3-D films, which today are shown predominantly in digitally equipped theaters. In its opening weekend, Walt Disney Co.'s animated "Meet the Robinsons" grossed an average of $12,200 per theater at the almost 600 digital theaters showing it in 3-D — more than double the average gross at regular theaters. Some theaters were able to hike ticket prices 20%.

Directors Robert Zemeckis and James Cameron are making big-budget 3-D movies. DreamWorks Animation SKG Inc. said its whole slate would be shot in that format starting in 2009.

Beyond 3-D, programming flexibility is one of the biggest appeals of digitally equipped theaters. Alternative entertainment such as sporting events could be shown during the day or on nights when moviegoing is light.

Cineplex Entertainment, Canada's largest theater chain, has been screening "WrestleMania" matches for several years. Recently it added hockey games, rock concerts and simulcasts of New York's Metropolitan Opera.

The opera has been shown on as many as four multiplex screens at a time to accommodate matinee crowds, said spokeswoman Pat Marshall, adding that it brings in a new demographic.

Ultimately, theater owners see their multiplexes thriving as broadly defined entertainment destinations.

"The world is getting so competitive," said Michael Whalen, president of Muvico Theaters, which is installing Sony Electronics' "4K" digital system at its new Chicago multiplex. He said cinemas needed to improve the moviegoing experience amid competition from better home-entertainment systems and shorter time spans between a film's theatrical release and its DVD debut.

Whalen dreams of packed houses for events such as NBA games or the Super Bowl in 3-D.

Technological issues remain formidable, however.

For now, loading or moving a digital movie can take hours because of the massive file size, said Michael Karagosian, a consultant to the theater industry. A 35-millimeter film print, by contrast, can be moved in 15 minutes. In addition, converting older, smaller systems to digital remains a problem.

Ultimately, the hope is that a multiplex will be able to move a surprise hit to its biggest auditorium, or demote a flop to the smallest, almost instantly with just a few keyboard strokes.

Studios gush about how crisp and pristine a digital movie remains even after hundreds of screenings, but not every filmmaker is sold on its superiority.

Paramount Pictures has released digital versions of almost every movie since last summer's "Mission: Impossible III," said Mark Christiansen, vice president of operations at the studio.

But when it screened Clint Eastwood's World War II drama "Flags of Our Fathers" digitally before last fall's release, the director and his team balked.

"They just didn't think it gave the same visceral feeling," Christiansen said. "We're always going to listen to the filmmakers."

Despite the uncertainties, manufacturers and theater owners expect the digital deployment to accelerate further in 2008 and 2009. The majority of the world's screens will be digital within five years, Texas Instruments predicts.

"The good news is, the momentum is there," theater industry consultant Karagosian said. "Five years ago, I couldn't say that."

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Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 04-18-2007, 10:18 AM:
 
I know Bill Campbell. What he's really saying is, "how can I possibly afford to switch with no help from the studios?" Because that's how it's starting to look for the small towns. NATO's lawyers should be keeping an eye on this aspect of the conversion, if their talk about representing ALL exhibitors, large and small, is true.
 

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Posted by John T. Hendrickson, Jr (Member # 849) on 04-18-2007, 10:55 AM:
 
Right on, Mike!

They should, but they probably will not. It's not just the small folks who are getting short-changed. At our independent complex, redoing 13 screens at $100,000 per is out of the question. And yet, what happens when the big guys in our area go digital? Will we be able to hang in?

Our presentation is top-notch. We would be spending 1.3 mil to duplicate quality. INSANE!

Glad I'm not an owner.
 

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Posted by Michael Coate (Member # 757) on 04-23-2007, 01:54 AM:
 
Los Angeles Times article

quote:

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Coming at you: Dueling 3-D films

Fox and DreamWorks fight over a 2009 release date. Theaters are caught in middle.

By Lorenza Muñoz, Times Staff Writer
April 20, 2007 -- Los Angeles Times

Movie theaters typically love having two big-budget movies butting heads on a holiday weekend because that will keep cash registers whirring at cinema complexes.

But an abundance of riches has put theaters in a bind for Memorial Day 2009.

Both 20th Century Fox and DreamWorks Animation SKG Inc. have chosen that date to release what each hopes will be its first 3-D blockbuster. DreamWorks' "Monsters vs. Aliens" will be up against a potentially scarier creature: "Avatar," a science-fiction thriller from James Cameron, the director of Hollywood's biggest blockbuster, "Titanic."

The nation's largest exhibitors, however, say they won't have room for both. As many as 5,000 screens are expected to be equipped to show 3-D movies by 2009, up from 700 today. But DreamWorks and Fox each want all of them. DreamWorks Animation Chief Executive Jeffrey Katzenberg, who has been campaigning to get theater operators to accelerate the conversion to 3-D, has told people that he needs 6,000 screens for "Monsters vs. Aliens."

"I would not want to be put in the position of choosing one over the other," said Mike Campbell, CEO of Regal Entertainment Group, the nation's largest theater chain. "I want both — just not on the same day."

But Campbell is confident that one of the studios will change its date over the next two years. "It's too early in the game to start panicking," he said. "If we are sitting here in March 2009 having this same conversation, I will be much more concerned. I think it will all get worked out."

Movie studios are increasingly planting their flags further ahead in time to secure the most desirable weekends. That's partly because of the high stakes: Production and marketing costs for the average movie now top $100 million. A movie's opening weekend can account for as much as one-fourth of the box-office take domestically. And Memorial Day traditionally kicks off the lucrative summer season.

But a head-to-head battle could leave both movies with fewer box-office receipts.

"These two pictures will have a tremendous demand," said Michael Patrick, chief executive of Carmike Cinemas Inc., who expects each of his 307 theater complexes to have at least two 3-D-capable screens by 2008. "We will want to play three screens of one movie in each complex. If we need to, you could play both of them, but you would never get as large a gross."

Neither DreamWorks nor Fox would comment, but people close to each studio doubt that each would back away from the date anytime soon.

Katzenberg has been trying to convince theater owners that 3-D technology is a way to grow attendance and keep young audiences weaned on video games interested. When he announced in March that DreamWorks movies would be made only in 3-D, he proclaimed that the technology was the "greatest opportunity for movies … to come along in 30 years."

To push his cause, Katzenberg has visited executives of the country's largest movie theater chains, including Regal and Carmike. DreamWorks, however, has yet to release details about "Monsters vs. Aliens" to whet their appetites.

Today's 3-D technology is light-years ahead of the 1950s, when viewers donned green and red glasses. Exhibitors must shell out $30,000 to $50,000 per screen for new equipment such as digital projectors with 3-D capability and special reflective silver screens. Images are crisper and more lifelike.

DreamWorks chose Memorial Day 2009 first, and movie executives said Katzenberg had little incentive to back away from the date because the dueling 3-D movies would keep the pressure on theaters to continue upgrading with new technology.

Yet few in Hollywood would relish going up against Cameron.

His "Titanic" is the highest-grossing picture ever, having brought in $1.9 billion in worldwide ticket sales and 11 Oscars including best picture. In addition, Cameron has carved out an audience because of his reputation as a technology pioneer. Many in the industry expect "Avatar" to break new ground, just as Cameron's 1991 blockbuster, "Terminator 2: Judgment Day," set a standard in special effects.

With an initial budget of $195 million, "Avatar" is set in a world where an alien race with its own language and culture battles human beings. For years, Cameron has been working on developing the technology for this feature while filming documentaries such as the 3-D documentary "Ghosts of the Abyss."

Cameron was unavailable for comment.

Some exhibitors are waiting before they make a commitment to see how some 3-D pictures perform, such as Walt Disney Co.'s "Meet the Robinsons" and Paramount Pictures' upcoming "Beowulf." "Meet the Robinsons" has not been a barnburner, grossing $110 million worldwide since its March 30 release.

Industry executives say supply will create demand. "The more content that is produced for this platform, the broader the marketplace is going to get," said Michael V. Lewis, chief executive of Real D, which has equipped the nation's theaters with the technology.

Jon Landau, head of Cameron's production company, Lightstorm Entertainment, said the movies would be there. "Three-D drives consumers who may not come to the movies normally," he said, noting that "Avatar" also would be released in 2-D. "They suddenly have a reason to go because they can't get it at home."

Most theater owners agree. "We intend to play a very aggressive role in 3-D," said Thomas Stephenson, CEO of theater chain Rave Motion Pictures, which operates 450 screens across the Midwest and Southeast. "It will permeate the whole entertainment environment."

But Regal's Campbell said exhibitors also should proceed with some caution.

"It's a chicken-and-egg situation," he said. "We want to see more product available before we make the [larger] investment in the technology."

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quote:

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Today's 3-D technology is light-years ahead of the 1950s, when viewers donned green and red glasses.

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Once again, the old myth is perpetuated...
 

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Posted by Darryl Spicer (Member # 711) on 04-23-2007, 09:50 AM:
 

quote:

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Exhibitors must shell out $30,000 to $50,000 per screen for new equipment such as digital projectors with 3-D capability and special reflective silver screens. Images are crisper and more lifelike.

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quote:

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May 22, 2007

Top Directors See the Future, and They Say It’s in 3-D

By SHARON WAXMAN

LOS ANGELES, May 21 — If some prominent Hollywood directors and an Irish rock band have their way, moviegoers en masse will soon be heading back to the future, wearing newfangled 3-D glasses.

Last week the next phase in the theatrical viewing experience took a significant leap forward, as Steven Spielberg and Peter Jackson signed on to direct and produce for Paramount’s DreamWorks Studios a trilogy of 3-D movies about the intrepid Belgian comic-book hero Tintin. And on Saturday nearly an hour of footage from the 3-D concert film of the Irish rock band U2 made its debut at the Cannes Film Festival.

As “U2 3D” demonstrates, this is definitely not the 3-D of drive-in memories. The concert film gives the audience the palpable experience of being present, as the camera swivels around Bono’s face, then soars over and down among the 60,000 concertgoers. And though the new version still requires audience members to wear glasses, they are not the old red-and-green variety but sleek black ones.

“This is a different experience; it’s much more voyeuristic,” said Jon Landau, the producer of “Avatar,” James Cameron’s ambitious and expensive movie about a battle between humans and aliens, which is currently being shot in 3-D using a combination of computer animation and motion-capture technology. “The screen has always been an emotional barrier for audiences. Good 3-D makes the screen go away. It disappears, and you’re looking at a window into a world.”

That view, however, isn’t completely clear yet. So far digital projection has been installed in only about 2,300 of the 37,000 theaters in the United States, with 3-D projection in just 700 of those. Theater owners have been slow to upgrade to expensive digital projectors, and it is an open question whether many American moviegoers will pay an extra dollar or two for tickets to 3-D films.

The 3-D film first flourished in the early 1950s, when movies like “Bwana Devil,” “House of Wax” and Disney’s “Melody” introduced audiences to the delights and annoyances of donning special glasses. But because of a combination of technological complexities, eye fatigue and a lack of compelling feature-length movies, many of the 3-D films were horror or soft-core pornography, which kept the filmmaking format on the fringes of the mainstream.

The emergence of Imax and the technological advances of the last few years, however, have piqued the interest of Hollywood’s top directors. Mr. Cameron, who made the 3-D Imax documentary “Ghosts of the Abyss” in 2003, is using motion capture technology and computer graphics to create realistic characters and fantasy worlds for “Avatar.”

Twentieth Century Fox will release that film, with an estimated $200 million cost, in 2009, mainly in 3-D. (Mr. Landau said that Mr. Cameron wore 3-D glasses — the latest have plastic rims — to look at his daily footage.)

Audiences, which have had a taste of the future in 3-D versions of children’s fare like “Monster House” and “Chicken Little,” will get another early blast of the experience in Robert Zemeckis’s adventure-drama “Beowulf,” to be released, wherever possible in 3-D, by Paramount and Warner Brothers in November.

And DreamWorks Animation SKG has announced that all of its future movies will be shot in 3-D, for release beginning in 2009.

“I believe that this is the single greatest opportunity for the moviegoing experience since the advent of color,” Jeffrey Katzenberg, the chief executive of DreamWorks Animation, said in an e-mail message. “It has been more than 60 years since there has been a significant enhancement or innovation to the moviegoing experience.”

He predicted that starting in 2009, “a significant percentage of the big mainstream films will be made and exhibited in this format.”

The widening embrace of 3-D by Hollywood’s leading directors and major studios comes at a critical moment for the movie industry, which faces expanding competition for leisure time from home theaters, the Internet and games. And it also solves, at least temporarily, the continuing pressures from the thriving trade in bootleg movies. A 3-D film cannot be recorded easily from a movie screen because the images are blurry to the naked eye. And so far there is no way to show a movie in 3-D on DVD.

The push to 3-D may also be the impetus needed to spur movie exhibitors to switch from film projectors to digital ones, say industry executives. A digital projector can cost around $100,000, a sum that has proved prohibitive to many exhibitors. Adding the 3-D component, including the silver coating of the screen, costs about $20,000 more, but the added benefit is immediately visible, said Michael V. Lewis, chairman of Real-D, which dominates the 3-D projection business.

There is already evidence of a box office payoff. “Meet the Robinsons,” an animated Disney film, was released in early April in 3,400 theaters, of which 600 (about 18 percent) were equipped with 3-D. The 3-D theaters brought in 30 percent of the box office revenue from the first weekend, according to Disney. And a 3-D version of “Polar Express” from 2004 has been released three years in a row in Imax theaters around the winter holidays, taking in $65 million.

Greg Foster, the chairman and president of Imax Filmed Entertainment, warned that not all films were suited to the format. “Three-D isn’t a panacea — it isn’t a magic pill,” he said. “It’s a spectacular thing if it fits three specific criteria: Does it take you somewhere? Is it made by a visionary filmmaker? And is the concept behind the film organic to 3-D?”

He added: “If you’re going to do 3-D because you need a gimmick to sell tickets, the audience is too smart for that.”

Among films that have not worked well in 3-D were “Chicken Little” and “Ant Bully,” which were also not successful at the box office.

The new projects aim to be more than mere gimmicks. Mr. Spielberg and Mr. Jackson have been working on the “Adventures of Tintin” project for about a year with Mr. Jackson’s special effects company, Weta Digital.

Part of the decision-making process included a week of motion capture work on the “Avatar” set in the Playa Vista section of Los Angeles last November. That visual information was sent to Weta in New Zealand. There it was married to a computer model of Tintin, the young, red-haired Belgian adventurer of comic-book fame, who is wildly popular in Europe though less so in this country. The results persuaded both directors to push forward with the trilogy.

Mr. Jackson is expected to direct the first film, Mr. Spielberg the second, with the director for the third undecided, according to a DreamWorks spokesman. There is as yet no start date for the first project.

Mr. Spielberg and Mr. Jackson both declined to comment for this article. Stacey Snider, the co-chairwoman of DreamWorks, also declined.

Mr. Jackson’s manager, Ken Kamins, said the director had long been fascinated with 3-D but until now had not been swayed by the ability to create a full-length feature experience. “Based on various tests he’s seen, he believes in the future of 3-D,” he said. “This is really starting to create some interesting imagery that gives the filmmaker a lot more creative license to play with.”

To shoot the U2 concert film, the directors Catherine Owens and Mark Pellington placed about a dozen cameras throughout stadiums during the band’s concert tour in Latin America last year, and shot more than 100 hours of footage. The film, co-owned by the band and 3ality Digital, a 3-D movie production company, does not yet have a distributor, but the partners expect the film to reach theaters in the fall.

Sandy Climan, chief executive of 3ality Digital Holdings, said the improved 3-D format would entice moviegoers eager for something new.

Mr. Katzenberg agreed. He predicted that after 2009, “consumers will own their own 3-D glasses in the same way they have sunglasses for going outside.”

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