3-D sports at a theatre near you

This is just hands down a great idea. Due to recent drops in ticket sales at movie theatre chains across the country, cineplex operators are being forced to find new alternative ways to get people in their seats. Granted, most places allow the rental of their theatres for birthday parties and corporate presentations but infrequent events such as those certainly don't make up for the loss of sales that have been encountered.

So what's the solution? How about airing 3-D sporting events. Live. Sound like a great idea? You bet it is.

Now before we get to the 3-D part, let me preface this by saying that the idea has already been tested to some extent. I'm originally from the Boston area (hence my shameless plug for the Red Sox in the above picture) and the predominant theatre chain in the area is Showcase Cinemas. During the Sox '04 World Series run, Showcase screened about half a dozen live Sox games at their theatres. In hi-def too. It was fantastic. I went to two of these outings, paid a regular movie ticket price, and had a great time. Plus, just like the article linked below says, there were vendors hocking beer and peanuts. It was the next best thing to actually being at Fenway Park.

National Amusements (they own Showcase) is now working to screen sporting events (and even concerts) at their theatre chains across the country by 2007. But the kicker is that it's all going to be in 3-D. They achieve this by filming with multiple hi-def cameras set at ratios proportional to the human eyes. Confused? Yeah, me too but who cares when you could see your favorite quarterback tossing a TD in 3-D.

This poses some interesting questions for television ratings if you think about it. Suppose a few thousand theatres around the country had three screens each airing the SuperBowl live? If all those seats were filled, wouldn't it make sense that those people should be calculated into ratings? Which raises even more questions about advertising slots... would commercials even be aired?

Rights will also be an issue. National Amusements had an easy time making the Red Sox games happen but for something like the NFL which is far more stingy with who can air their games, it will almost certainly be harder. Regardless, in time we're going to start seeing a lot more of this because theatres are losing money. And now with maverick attempts to break the distribution line and have simultaneous platform releases (see Bubble), who knows what else theatres will try. I like the direction it's taking though.

[via ZD Net]