Just as people are declaring 3D dead and hoping it finally goes away, what happens?
The Lion King gets converted to 3D, and it’s the #1 movie in the country for two weeks running, beating out newcomers Moneyball, and Killer Elite.
So with the success of the 3D Lion King, and the news that Top Gun will also be coming back in 3D, it shouldn’t be any surprise that more 3D conversions are now on the way.
The L.A. Times headlined a recent report on the phenomenon, “3D Makeover Coming to Aging Blockbusters,” and on the list to be redone in 3D are, you guessed it, the Star Wars series, as well as Titanic, which Paramount will apparently spend $18 million to convert, as it will be released next April to coincide with the 100 year anniversary of the ship sinking.
Cameron told writer Rebecca Keenan that with the success of The Lion King at the box office, “Whatever doubts there were pretty much evaporated this past weekend. They see the potential. All it takes it a little healthy greed and doubts tend to go away.”
And greed should definitely fuel more 3D conversions considering it only cost $10 million to convert the Lion King, and the software to convert movies is getting less expensive. Where before it cost $100,000 a minute to convert a movie to 3D, now you can do it for $25,000 a minute.
The Timesalso ran a poll asking readers what classics they’d like to see converted to 3D, and as of this writing, 2001: A Space Odyssey is in the lead, with, “None of the above, keep your hands off my favorite movies” right behind it.
Thankfully, Citizen Kane isn’t on the list, and Orson Welles probably has a provision in his deal that it could never be altered with something like 3D, which was then eleven years away from being the alleged salvation of the movie business in 1952.
