Premium glasses for 3D movies? (1 Viewer)

With the (seeming) rise in popularity of 3D movies, assuming they have the same standard across all theaters, is there a market for premium 3D glasses? While you will probably end up paying extra no matter what, it would be nice to have a pair of 'studio' grade glasses to use when watching these movies, as opposed to the cheap junk ones you get.

I assume there are high-end ones they use when making the movie?

Thoughts?

I would certainly spend the money for a good set as long as the movies continue to be good ones. I'm really looking forward to seeing Coraline and Up!

I have had enough of these 3-d movies...Why? It's bad enough to spend between $6 & $10 for a movie (depending on if its a matinee). But, then to have to pay an additional $3 per person to get the glasses is outrageous. I took 2 of my kids to see a matinee and it was $27 for the 3 tickets!!! If you want to have 3-d fine. Just don't charge extra for the glasses. And yes I know you can save them and not pay again.

Actually, I don't know if you can. I've got a bunch of 3-D glasses from before theaters started setting up recycle/return drop boxes, and I've never heard of one offering to cut you a break on the price if you brought your own glasses. Would be cool if they did, but I don't expect to see it.

And these days, $9/ticket is close to what an adult pays for 2-D matinees here in Boston. Of course, that's in part because the savings for going to the early show aren't really substantial any more.

Last two 3D movies I went to ("Bolt" and "Beowolf") they had some very nice glasses handed out. Nice sturdy plastic and large enough to wear glasses underneath. They just collected them as you left. There was no extra charge for them either.

That said, I certainly can see a market for some high-end glasses that properly fit your head etc.

Heaven forbid we go back to the crappy cardboard specs they gave out at 3-D flicks in the 80's! I had to tear those suckers apart and jam them under my eyeglasses, because no way in heck would they fit over them!

Not to mention the lenses were like granny specs in their scope.

The current glasses are a big improvement.

I would also suggest the increased price is not merely for the glasses, but to help pay for the expensive projectors needed for 3D, not to mention the increased cost of the prints. I have no numbers to back this up, but it seems logical.

Yes on defraying the costs associated with 3-D (new projectors, lenses, often a new reflective screen), but not prints, as most of today's 3-D films don't even have prints; they're entirely digital, and one of the supposed benefits of digital projection is that distribution costs are supposed to drop nearly to zero.

RealD and Dolby3d have nice Glasses.


Can wait for Avatar in 3d!

There are no "prints" to speak of. You are watching a digital video file that was either shipped on a hard drive or downloaded from a secure site. The hard drives are reformatted and used again after they are returned to the distributor. The actual "print" cost along with freight is negligible compared to the cost of a 35mm print plus the massive freight costs of shipping 5-8 reels per print to each theater.

Originally Posted by ChrisBEA

I would also suggest the increased price is not merely for the glasses, but to help pay for the expensive projectors needed for 3D, not to mention the increased cost of the prints. I have no numbers to back this up, but it seems logical.

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I finally found a theater not too far from me that is a true bargain, especially for 3-D: Cinema City Theatres in Anaheim Hills, CA.

Matinees before noon are $5
Matinees before 6pm are $6
Seniors are $5 ($4 on Wed & Thurs)
Children are $6
Students, police, fire, and military are $8
Evening shows are $9
Dolby 3D surcharge is only $2

Regal charges upwards of $13 for a 3-D matinee!!

That's a sweet deal.

My local theater chain Carmike Cinemas have 3-D showings and charge $9 for a matinee and $12 for an evening show. Except on "Stimulus Tuesdays" where 3-D tickets are $7 for matinees and $9 for evening shows.

I'm pretty sure the "Stimulus Tuesday" special is only availble at select Carmike theaters across the Midwest. Just FYI.

One of the problems is, I think right now there are three competing digital systems, that do not use compatible glasses.

Semi-old schooled, used now in 15/70mm Imax 3D halls, using simple polarized lenses. Linear polarization, angled, I believe, 45-degrees +/- from vertical.

"New schooled" polarized, using clockwise and counter-clockwise circularly polarized lenses. These don't "ghost" or cross-talk if you tilt your head. Can be a single projector solution.

New-fangled, without using polarization, using two different color pallettes. These use projectors with two different sets of RGB filters, yielding a subset of colors overlapped within the two different triangles. The glasses themselves have different multi-band-pass filters. Again, no cross-talk, and theoretically, better brightness. More expensive, has to be a 2-projector system.

Leo

I actually bought several pairs of "nice" 3d glasses - they look like old style ray-bans and use real blue/red glass instead of plastic. At the time there were only a couple of 3-D movies available (like the A-bomb movie....). I got a couple of the more recent 3-D movies (journey to the center of the earth, Caroline...) - only to find that the red/blue from the included glasses is the exact opposite of my "nice" glasses. I tried to watch them as they were but it wasn't working....so I tried wearing them upside-down so the colors match up. This sort of works but kind of defeats the purpose...

I work at a movie theater, and your NOT paying more for the 3D glasses!! You are paying extra because of the equipment and the experiance that Hollywood went the extra effort to bring to you! If you want to be cheap and not pay for it no one is holding a gun to your head and telling you to buy a ticket..I am sick of people bitching!

Originally Posted by jfoster

I work at a movie theater, and your NOT paying more for the 3D glasses!! You are paying extra because of the equipment and the experiance that Hollywood went the extra effort to bring to you! If you want to be cheap and not pay for it no one is holding a gun to your head and telling you to buy a ticket..I am sick of people bitching!

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I think most (if not all) people here understand that the equipment is why there is an extra fee but it's not like the theaters are going to start dropping the $3 fee once they've paid off the cost of the equipment.


As for people bitching, I'm sure you're sick of hearing people complain about ticket prices but you come off pretty cowardly when you take shots at people on the internet where you can remain safe and basically anonymous rather than saying it directly to the face of your customers.

I think movie theaters might be pushing their luck if they try to price gouge even more for 3D movies.

I remember when the "please recycle your 3D glasses" message came up at one movie, some lady shouted out "why? I paid for them!" and several people started cheering. I think that sums up the feeling of a lot of folks (rightly or wrongly).

People return the glasses after they're used ... so give them decent glasses if you're going to charge folks basically $2-$3 extra to basically be able to "rent" a pair of 3D glasses for a couple of hours.

Originally Posted by jfoster

You are paying extra because of the equipment and the experiance that Hollywood went the extra effort to bring to you!

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I'll buy the equipment reason but I call BS on your "extra effort" reason. All movies take different amounts of effort to make but, they've never charged a premium for higher effort. If that were the case then movies like Gladiator or Titanic would have charged more then something like Clerks or Blair Witch.


Also, do the theaters actually get that extra money or do the studios get it (serious question, I don't know)? If the studios are get the extra "3D" money then it really isn't paying for the equipment.