A big sarcastic 'thank you' needs to go out to the 3D movie-going public who have been throwing their money away on every three-dimensional movie Hollywood has tossed at you within the last year. Because of you, the major movie theater chains are jacking up their prices all because you told them with your wallets that you were more than happy to pay $14.00+ to see movies instead of the $10 you could have paid in 2D.
Not only did you screw yourselves by causing them to jack your 3D prices by up to 25%, but you screwed the rest of us too. The regular 2D prices also went up this past weekend due to you wasteful clowns.
See, since so many of you guys don't even flinch when the guy at the counter says "$29, please" for two tickets and a couple of pairs of plastic glasses, the theater chains figured that you really wouldn't mind paying $22 for all those movies that aren't offered in 3D. Gee, thanks.
The ONLY good news that came out of the weekend was that the film that they decided to premier their higher 3D prices with, "How To Train Your Dragon", underwhelmed at the box office and left them all scratching their heads. It also resulted in Dreamworks' stock losing 9% of its value on Monday. So much for that great idea...
Unfortunately, wishing for lower prices to now return is as futile as putting toothpaste back in the tube. Prices in this line of business never go back down. We're stuck with new higher ticket prices, already sky-high concession prices and even some brand spankin' new rules from theater chains like AMC that now officially prohibit any outside food or drink -- all happening at a time when our economy is in the crapper.
It would be nice to think that there is limit where people will simply refuse to pay X-amount of money to see a movie in 3D -- or in any 'D' for that matter. Is there really a point where will people will say that paying $100 to take their family of 4 to the movies is just too much and paying $9 for a Netflix membership and $3 for a box of microwavable popcorn is just a better deal?
I admit that I'll really be rooting against this coming week's 3D offering, "Clash of the Titans". In this instance, they didn't even film the movie with the intent to show it in 3D. The 3D-ness was actually thought up in post-production and was basically added as a simple corporate cash grab. Even so, I have no doubt that plenty of suckers will be paying $15, $16 and $17 each just to see a mediocre movie that wasn't even filmed with them in mind.
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