Finally — Animated Characters with Real Depth

It’s expected to be a big weekend in terms of box office, with Disney’s CG-animated Meet the Robinsons and the new Will Ferrell figure-skating comedy (what took him so long?) Blades of Glory likely to lead the herd in dollars earned — though not necessarily in that order.

It’s a pretty big weekend in terms of technology, too. Meet the Robinsons isn’t the first Disney feature to get the 3D treatment — that roll-out began with Chicken Little and continued last year with a successful 3D reissue of Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas. But it is the latest. If its 3D receipts command an outsized share of its total box-office take (only 600 screens out of more than 3400 theaters showing the movie will have the digital 3D version) it’ll be another impetus for exhibitors to hasten their transition to digital projection. (At The Hollywood Reporter, Carolyn Giardina breaks down 3D expansion this way: Chicken Little opened on 84 North American screens at the end of 2005; there were about 240 at the end of 2006; and now there are “more than 600.”) Jeffrey Katzenberg threw a few more celluloid logs on the fire by declaring (according to Variety) that all of Dreamworks animated output will be released in 3D starting in 2009 (but not before). And of course James Cameron, Robert Zemeckis, and even VFX wiz Eric Brevig have 3D projects in the pipeline.

But do moviegoers know, yet, what a “3D animated film is”? (Is it a 3D-animated film or a 3D animated film?) Do they care? And is the marketing effort sufficient to make them want to drive out of their way to find one?

There are two multiplexes within a 10-minute drive of my home in suburban New York. One of them is a nice, fairly well-designed stadium-seated complex of recent vintage. The other is an older, more run-down suite of theaters with small, high screens and perpetually blown surround speakers that make noises like firecrackers during bass-heavy trailers. (That’s a step in the right direction — 10 years ago, two of the auditoriums didn’t even have surround sound.) The older, less pleasant multiplex has a digital screen showing Meet the Robinsons in 3D (tickets for the 3D screen are $12, compared to $10 for the 2D print showing in the same building). Its younger, spiffier cousin down the street is only showing the flat version. I’m genuinely surprised that the newer, nicer cinema got short shrift in this case. I guess the theater chain is trying to force a little extra traffic into that waning ‘plex during its golden years — which means they’re betting that somebody cares about 3D.

For an interesting visual representation of how the roll-out is going so far, check out the Real D theater finder.