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Posted by Steven J Hart (Member # 2340) on 04-05-2010, 09:06 PM:
 
This article is from the 4/2/2010 Fargo Forum. How to Train Your Dragon is not playing in North Dakota's largest city because of lack of 3D screens...

If you’re one of the irate parents wondering why the latest 3-D animated film “How to Train Your Dragon” isn’t anywhere to be seen in the Fargo movie theaters, chill out a bit.

There’s a good reason why this movie, released last Friday, about Vikings and dragons isn’t playing in a metro area full of people who are descendants of Vikings and alumni of a college with a dragon mascot.

“Dragon” isn’t screening here because the film’s studio is playing hardball with movie theaters. The studio, Paramount Pictures, has told theaters that if they don’t plan on playing the “Dragon” in 3-D, they won’t be receiving any 2-D prints of the kid-friendly flick.

It’s an unprecedented move, and one that underscores the changing landscape of movie theaters trying to keep up with the changing technology of film.

Currently, only 3,500, or less than 10 percent, of the movie screens in the United States and Canada are set up for 3-D. Since it costs more for the studios to make 3-D films, they’re fighting with each other to land their movies on 3-D screens that can charge an extra $2 or $3 for tickets that help recoup production expenses.

And with three high-profile 3-D films released at the same time, studios are getting aggressive in the approaches to secure screens. Because Century 10 has been playing “Alice in Wonderland” on the 3-D screen through last night and starts “Clash of the Titans” in 3-D today, Paramount’s hardliner stance has left us without a copy of “Dragon.”

The situation hurts exhibitors around the nation. Because of the popularity of the medium, theaters are scrambling to get more 3-D technology fit into their auditoriums. But the demand has outpaced production of everything from 3-D-ready screens to 3-D glasses, leaving many multiplexes with only one screen set up for 3-D movies, as it is in Fargo.

Solarski says that it takes 12 weeks to get a 3-D screen once you’ve placed the order. Then there’s the cost, about $100,000 for a screen, which means he probably isn’t ordering four of five of them any time soon.

But West Acres 14, which is managed by the same company as Century 10, does have a 3-D screen on the way. Solarski says it should be ready by next Friday. And when that happens, Solarski says “How to Train Your Dragon” will play in Fargo.

Even if that sates the ire of all those parents with young “Dragon” fans, country music fans could be the next group to be upset. The late arrival of “Dragon” will likely mean the concert film “Kenny Chesney: Summer in 3-D” won’t be in Fargo when it’s released on April 21.

Of course, this means movie fans need to pray the second 3-D screen comes to town before the summer blockbuster season. Because if Paramount pulls this ploy with the new “Shrek” film, families are going to be really torqued off.

Fargo Forum article
 

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Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 04-05-2010, 10:54 PM:
 
This writer should have talked to a real theatre manager before submitting this article. If that new 3-D theatre plays Dragon for 2 weeks, then brings in Kenny Chesney, there's no way "Shrek" will have trouble getting 3-D screens; the Kenny Chesney concert film will be well out of the way by the time it comes out. Jeez I hate newspaper writers who push the "send" button before a story is properly finished.
 

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Posted by Tony Bandiera Jr (Member # 2365) on 04-08-2010, 03:34 PM:
 
True Mike, but the bigger issue is that the studios are now trying to FORCE theatres to install, ON THE THEATRE'S DIME, some very expensive equipment to play their shit products.

How would you feel if a studio pulled that stunt on you?

I would be screaming violation of anti-trust laws and perhaps obstruction of fair trade as well.

Or maybe I wouldn't waste time and energy in court and just tell Paramount to stuff their films where the sun don't shine.
 

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Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 04-08-2010, 05:32 PM:
 
I don't see it as any different from what the studios have been doing for years: They have a movie that's worth one or two weeks, but require you to play it for three or four weeks or more. We've been dealing with that crap for years...we've had to skip a lot of great movies because they wouldn't let us have a show for ONE week when we needed it. They'd rather let film sit in the warehouses, I guess.
 

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Posted by Steven J Hart (Member # 2340) on 04-08-2010, 06:19 PM:
 

quote: Mike Blakesley

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We've been dealing with that crap for years...we've had to skip a lot of great movies because they wouldn't let us have a show for ONE week when we needed it. They'd rather let film sit in the warehouses, I guess.

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