Fox, like all other studios today, is still celebrating audiences’ inexplicable willingness to drop $58.3 million on Monsters vs. Aliens over the weekend, mostly since the majority of the gross came from higher-priced tickets to see it in 3-D. At ShoWest yesterday, says Variety, Fox Filmed Entertainment co-chair Jim Gianopulos told a crowd that the cratering economy should not allow theater owners to delay the installation of 3-D screens and projectors, since they could help add $1 billion to yearly box-office totals. Hilariously, though, his studio is now informing exhibitors that it won’t help pay for the specialized glasses required to see its movies in 3-D, because of the cratering economy.
Along with the other majors, Fox will help theaters foot the bill (“tens of millions”) for new projectors. But glasses will still cost an additional $1 million for every new 3-D movie — including Fox’s Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs, due on July 1.
It’s still unclear whether other majors will follow suit (“They should reconsider their position, until we see how the 3-D rollout goes,” says an exec at a rival studio), though we’re pretty sure it’ll be moviegoers paying for these stupid things in the end, anyway.
Fox rebuffs costs of 3-D glasses [HR]
’Aliens’ the talk of ShoWest [Variety]
