A pair of 3D glasses Seeing in three dimensions...or not: A major studio and a major theater chain play a game of "I'm not paying for the glasses; I thought you were paying for the glasses." iStockphoto.com
 

by Linda Holmes

So. Monsters vs. Aliens has a huge opening weekend, Dreamworks is all set to keep rolling with 3D releases, and a few thousand screens have apparently already been converted to show 3D at a reported cost of up to $100,000 per screen.

But what about the plastic glasses? You may have thought that the $5 premium you paid for that 3D ticket was adequate to cover a pair of polarized plastic shades, but don't you believe it -- there's a whole new battle over who's going to pay for the glasses. Specifically, Ice Age 3 looks to be facing some difficulties getting theaters to put it on their new 3D-ready screens if Twentieth Century Fox keeps insisting it's not paying.

This sounds a little like the urban legend that exists at every college about how the library is sinking because the architects didn't account for the weight of the books. Millions of dollars to make the movie, millions of dollars to outfit the theaters, and now we're going to be hung up on the $1 million-per-movie cost of plastic-glasses manufacturing.

categories: Movies

10:14 - April 2, 2009

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