Will GRAVITY 3D triumph over 2D in S'pore?

15 Oct 2013

SINGAPORE - If you've heard all that buzz above GRAVITY being the film to watch on the biggest screen in 3D, then Shaw's two IMAX screens and GVmax are going to be your only options in Singapore. Only about 23% of available sessions during the first week are being allocated for 3D, with many of the bigger halls playing the 2D version. So what gives?

After the success of AVATAR, 3D became the in-thing in 2010 and distributors and exhibitors started to push the format to the audience by offering more sessions in bigger halls (and charging higher ticket process in the process). Flash forward to 2013 and the opposite is now the norm. The audience seems to have grown weary of 3D, and exhibitors have responded by offering more 2D sessions over 3D; or totally foregoing the 3D version for domestic exhibition in some cases, as was the case for Tsui Hark's YOUNG DETECTIVE DEE: RISE OF THE SEA DRAGON 狄仁杰之神都龙王.

Two weekends ago, GRAVITY set a new box office record when it became the biggest October opening film in the United States with a gross of US$55.8m. The surprise was that 3D accounted for 80% of ticket sales. That's almost double that of most blockbusters these days, and higher than the 71% managed by AVATAR during its opening weekend. IMAX also accounted for US$11.8m, or about 21% of the total gross. And just this past weekend, the 3D share rose to 82%. So basically, what GRAVITY did was prove that if there was a product that warranted the format, the audience would be willing to pay for it.  

But the exhibitors here do not seem to be subscribing to this same train of thought and are playing it safe. Cathay has allocated only one out of its six cinemas for any 3D sessions. The 3D version is also not playing at 3 Golden Village cinemas and 3 Shaw theatres. As the widest new film in release, GRAVITY emerged as the top film at the box office this past weekend. But how much of the sales is attributed to 3D, and how the takeup rate compares to the 2D version is not known. Without such data, it's hard to judge if the local exhibitors were correct in assessing the local audience's declining interest in 3D, or whether they missed out an opportunity to fully exploit all the positive buzz surrounding the film's 3D format.

Note: The 23% estimate above is calculated based on the sessions available on 15 Oct (a public holiday)