On May 11, the theatrical movie "Fast and Furious 10" officially opened online pre-sale. The film met Chinese mainland audiences on May 17, two days ahead of North America. "Fast and Furious 8" has achieved a box office result of 2.67 billion yuan in Chinese mainland, so this "Fast and Furious 10" is also expected to be high. With the opening of the film's pre-sale, controversy followed.
It turns out that "Fast and Furious 10" accounts for 3D scenes in major theaters, far ahead of 2D scenes. In contrast, the Universal City Avenue Cinema is basically 2D in the schedule of "Fast and Furious 10". Universal City Avenue Cinema belongs to Universal Beijing Resort, and the first producer of "Fast and Furious 10" is Universal Pictures.
Based on this, many professional fans believe that Universal itself knows better about its own "Fast and Furious 10" - they know that their own popcorn movie is more suitable for 2D viewing than 3D. On the other hand, Chinese mainland the scheduling data of other cinemas, some cinemas in first-tier cities and first-tier brands also know that some 2D performances are scheduled for this movie, although they are still mostly 3D scenes. But at the same time, a large number of cinemas in second- and third-tier cities and their second- and third-tier brands are all 3D versions of "Fast and Furious 10".
There are even professional fans who ridicule that the lower the end, the more you have to take out all the scenes to rank 3D scenes for "Fast and Furious 10". Why do these professional fans dislike the 3D version so much? In fact, after the wide release of 3D movies in theaters over the years, professional fans have gradually found that this visual technology does not actually bring much pleasure to watching, and at the same time, wearing 3D glasses is also a visual burden. At the same time, the so-called 3D of many movies is actually pseudo-3D, and at the beginning of shooting, no 3D version was designed, but only a follow-up 2D to 3D.
So, since 3D movies have caused a burden for some professional fans, why are the majority of theaters still more willing to schedule 3D screenings? Even when there is a choice between 2D and 3D, it is still only 3D? There are several reasons here.
The first reason, and the most important reason, is that the vast majority of fans will still choose 3D scenes.
Cinemas have always been market-oriented. Although professional fans have found that the 3D mode of some movies is not good-looking, far inferior to 2D, but a large number of ordinary fans have not reached a consensus on this point. It can even be said that in the past movie promotion, everyone has been promoting how good 3D is. Ordinary fans preconceived that 3D is better than 2D, and 4D is definitely better than 3D in the future.
Ordinary fans are the main consumer army of theatrical movies. They enter the cinema to watch movies, and their social attributes are stronger than their artistic appreciation attributes. For this group of fans, watching a 3D movie is obviously more sensory stimulation. Some theaters with basic aesthetics found that 3D performances sold well after arranging some movies in 2D and 3D. Market-oriented cinemas can only be arranged in 3D. Fans prefer 3D, and the more second- and third-tier cities, the more common this phenomenon is.
The second reason is that major theaters can sell 3D glasses through 3D performances, which is a very considerable income.
The earliest 3D movies were distributed with 3D glasses in major cinemas, and after the movie was watched, the theater was responsible for taking it back at the exit. In the last three years, new changes have taken place. Due to hygiene and other considerations, basically all movie theaters have been replaced with 3D movies, and fans need to prepare 3D glasses by themselves.
The vast majority of movie fans buy movie tickets through online ticketing platforms. But when they arrived at the theater, they found that the major theaters no longer provided free 3D glasses. As a result, fans had to buy their own 3D glasses in theaters. In some second-tier cities, 3D glasses have a price tag of 10 yuan or more. In some first-tier cities, the price of a 3D glasses even exceeds the movie ticket itself.
This is an important monetization option for a large number of theaters today. The cost of 3D glasses is very low, which is a typical profiteering market. The vast majority of ordinary movie fans have no way to stock up on 3D glasses on their own. And professional movie fans, who often watch movies, although they have 3D glasses, they fundamentally do not like to watch 3D movies.
Based on this, a large number of theaters in second- and third-tier cities, in the schedule of "Fast and Furious 10", are all 3D performances, and a 2D one is not prepared. They are actually ready to harvest a wave of green fans at a high price through 3D glasses.
Therefore, as a professional movie fan, my advice is to let the major theaters know the importance of ranking 2D shows for "Fast and Furious 10" by "voting with your feet". This popcorn movie, watching the 2D version, is actually more comfortable, its producer Universal is only ranked 2D in its own studio. (Text/Ma Qingyun)