Asia Faces 3D Conversion Revolution

As the speed of 3D moviemaking picks up, with more than 30 titles coming from Hollywood alone in 2011, Asia presents a challenge and an opportunity to the companies helping the region’s theater owners and operators join the stereoscopic revolution.

At the CineAsia distributors and exhibitors trade show here this week, Technicolor Asia is promoting a stop-gap technology designed to help theaters in the two hottest growth markets, China and Indonesia, make the leap from 2D to 3D to earn more money from higher-priced tickets. The company’s 35mm 3D solution is needed because while films such as Avatar have proven to make more money in 3D, middle-class consumers in many of China’s dozens of second- and third-tier cities with populations of over a million aren’t yet fully ready pay for the costlier 3D tickets that will underwrite expensive new digital hardware.

Technicolor hopes its $25,000 package solution will fill a void for two to three years before China’s digital conversion process is complete, Tim Meade, Technicolor’s Asia Pacific 3D sales and marketing director, told The Hollywood Reporter on the sidelines of the annual three-day CineAsia event.

“The Technicolor 35mm 3D solution is designed to provide exhibitors with a low-cost alternative to digital 3D that gets them into the business of 3D,” said Meade, who joined NYSE-listed Technicolor in June at its Asia headquarters in Bangkok.

Read More at: Hollywood reporter