Four Eyes Good

"One for Monsters vs. Aliens."
"$9.00."
"$9.00? The early bird special is $6.00."
"We charge an additional $3.00 for 3D glasses."
"Oh. I brought the pair I received when I saw Bolt. Same glasses, right?"
"Yes, but I still have to assess the surcharge."

"…your ticket aaand your glasses."
"I don't need another pair."
"But you paid for them."


The 3D film conundrum:

Repeatedly forcing glasses on people wastes plastic and inevitably creates waste, because buyers (and cinemas) have no incentive to retain them.

On the other hand, would you trust the staff at a cinema with sanitizing reusable glasses?

The easiest solution is for cinemas to offer tickets and glasses a la carte, but cinemas upsell everything they can.

The other solution is to eliminate 3D cinema, but the film industry convinced itself that 3D is the future. Wikipedia lists 35 upcoming 3D film releases, including seven Pixar films and films by James Cameron, Tim Burton and Zack Snyder – not exactly negligible fare.


Whoa.

Final Destination: Death Trip 3D, from the visionary director of Snakes on a Plane!

2 Comments

  1. Chri$ 13 Apr 09 at 23:06

    You got to keep yours? Someone with me tried and got the evil eye, intimidated into dumping the glasses.
    A la carte would collapse, too many idiots would cheap out and try to watch the movie without glasses, resulting in the world's stupidest complaints, resulting in a reversion to the original system.

    Reply
  2. L 14 Apr 09 at 17:50

    Costco sells AMC tickets 2 for 15.99, and then went to watch Aliens vs Monsters 3-D Imax without pay any extra surchages.

    Reply

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