Australian Exhibitors High on 3-D

3-D cinema is set to dominate at the Australian Intl. Movie Convention Aug. 31-Sept. 4 on Queensland's Gold Coast. Presentations from Disney and Paramount DreamWorks, especially, will feature slates bulging with enhanced product. Nielsen EDI will give a presentation on the future of 3-D, and film supplier Atlab has convened a nine-person panel to chew the issue.

Exhibs, finally, are interested. The dozen 3-D titles queuing for release this year and next have given them reason to upgrade their sites. While distributors have agreed to pay virtual print fees, the details of how such a system will operate have not been settled.

"Digital is going to be a wonderful thing for us all," says David Pye, chairman of Western Australia's independent four-site, 23-cinema Ace circuit. Pye is an early adapter who financed an A$150,000 ($135,000) digital 3-D outfit for one cinema in his Midlands eightplex. In Oz, he's a rarity. Just 40 of Australia's 1,941 screens are digital compliant, of which a mere 24 are 3-D enabled.

"There's so much product coming through in the next year, I thought if I can get in early, hopefully I can pay it off," Pye says.

Dominant Oz loops Hoyts and Greater Union each have a 3-D cinema in Perth too. That's three cinemas for a booming city. Pye is looking forward to the release of Journey to the Center of the Earth -- "It's going to be the big one for us," he says, adding that U2-3D didn't really work for his theater, but Hannah Montana 3-D did well. Journey opens Sept. 25, followed by Disney's animated Bolt, then DreamWorks Animation comedy Monster vs. Aliens on April 2, 2009.

Imax and Hoyts last month announced a plan to launch four co-branded cinemas in Australia; Imax Asia managing director Don Savant says there will eventually be up to 15 sites here. Australia's exhibition industry is dominated by Hoyts, Greater Union/Birch Carroll and Coyle and Village Cinemas. It's these companies that must flick the switch to digital. And, in fact, it's digital, rather than 3-D that may move the large exhibs.

"The 3-D thing right now is flavor of the month, but digital cinema generally is going to be a smarter, better system," Stephen Basil-Jones, managing director of Sony Pictures Releasing and deputy chair of the Motion Picture Distributors Assn. of Australia, says.

By Micharla Boland, Variety