It is epidemic from 3D in film industry. The latest infected is "Titanic", which returns to the big screen fifteen years after the great cinematic success (with 11 Oscars, it is still the second most successful box office of all time, with receipts of 600,8 million dollars), after an 18 million dollar technological make-up. The film, which tells the tragic love story between third-class passenger Jack (played by Leonardo DiCaprio) and the aristocrat Rose (Kate Winslet), unleashed a collective frenzy at the time among teenagers, but also adults, bewitched by a tender teenage love affair. Today, the "Titaniacs", i.e. the Titanic maniacs, as director James Cameron affectionately calls them, grown up and perhaps greyed, will have the opportunity to relive the dramatic story of the sinking of the most famous ship in the world in its most minute detail.
A fashion phenomenon. Titanic is just the latest of the classic films to return to theaters in three dimensions. In 2012 Disney has a long list of releases, which sees titles loved by young and old such as “Beauty and the Beast”, “Nemo”, “Monsters Inc.” and "The Little Mermaid". And this technological choice does not seem destined only for blockbusters: the whimsical Australian director Baz Lurhman, author of "Romeo + Juliet" and "Australia", has decided to shoot his adaptation of the famous novel by Scott Fitzgerald, "The Great Gatsby" , in 3D. He approves of Lurhman's choice, Jon Landau, film producer behind successes such as "Titanic" and "Avatar". For him, limiting 3D to special effects films would be equivalent to “what happened 50 years ago, when color was reserved only for musicals”.
"After all – he continues – if the film is of good quality, 3D improves it. If it's not good, 3D certainly doesn't help." However, Landau criticizes the industry for an indiscriminate use of 3D. “Many cinematographic companies, in the aftermath of the success of “Avatar”, have rushed to release new editions of films in 3D. The results have sometimes been mediocre. It takes a lot of time and patience to package a good product in three dimensions”.
A growing business. Good or bad products, the digital industry applied to cinema is one of the great business phenomena of recent years. In the wake of the success of “Avatar”, another creation by Cameron which brought 600 million New Zealand dollars into the pockets of Weta (the New Zealand special effects house responsible for the technical part of the ecological blockbuster) the race to exploit this entertainment system. If major US studios invested $237 million in 3D in 2008, that figure ballooned to $800,8 million in 2010. Recent research firm Tech Navio estimates that this business will turn over $1,5 billion by 2014. .
New potential. The market leader is Autodesk, which controls a third of the world's business, with 6.800 employees and an expected $535 million in net revenue in the third quarter of 2012. "There is still great potential in 3D - comments Neil Wadhawan , co-founder of Autodesk – as consumers become familiar with this new technology applied to movies and video games, new spaces are being glimpsed in rote training and advertising.” And when 3D in the cinema becomes an established fact like color film, another medium is ready to import this technique: TV. Samsung was the first to sniff out the deal, launching the first 3D television on the market. Life then starts to become less and less flat for viewers around the world.
