Cinemas may not be the draw they once were, with everyone now having a television and DVD or Blu-ray player at home, and able to watch movies in the comfort of their own homes, but new technology is emerging that could once again make the silver screen a huge entertainment draw for families.

Imax (short for Image MAXimum) theaters have been around since the 1970s but have really only come into mainstream use in the last five years or so. 2004’s The Polar Express really made Hollywood stand up and take notice due to the animated feature taking 25 percent of its box office takings from Imax screens.

More and more films are now released with Imax portions included, with Beowulf and The Dark Knight being two cited examples of success. But the Imax technology is always evolving, and digital 3D screens are now becoming more and more common.

They’ve been present in the U.S. for a while, and Europe has now got its first two screens, with Greenwich and Wimbledon in London being the lucky locations. The price of installing the technology is high, these two screens costing $1.5 million each, but once digital becomes the standard, there will be no need for costly prints.

The first fully 3D movie, Under the Sea, a feature-length documentary with commentary by Jim Carrey, is set to be released in February, but 3D is likely to gain a huge foothold in the future. Dreamworks has already announced its intentions to go 100 percent 3D, while future movies such as Harry Potter and The Half-Blood Prince will contain key sequences in 3D.

The big problem is that the technology still requires the use of glasses to gain the 3D effect, and while it’s not too much effort to put on and take off those little plastic specs from time to time, I can’t see 3D movies really becoming the standard until a better alternative is discovered.

But for now, the cinema experience is evolving, with new technology being used by the movie studios to try and gain back the audience share the industry has lost to home movie sales and piracy in recent years. And that has got to be good for those of us who can’t resist seeing a new film on a massive screen from time to time, even if it does cost a fortune to do so.

When televisions also go 3D then I’ll really be impressed.

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Entry was posted on Friday, December 5th, 2008 at 10:37 pm under Apple, Google, Opinion, Technology.

Read more entries by Dave Parrack.
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