Starting May 2012, Sony will hereby finish providing cinema-goers with those hilarious 3D glasses that you probably pose in for your Facebook account.
Sony’s reasoning behind the move was that it was just too expensive to front the glasses to customers, a deal that cost the company between $5 – $10 million per 3D film released. In the past Sony Pictures and other film studios have agreed to front the glasses to consumers as an incentive for cinemas to invest in 3D projectors – but sadly not for ever.
The lowdown over here in the recently polled as ‘weak’ UK 3D film industry is a bit different, as Apollo Cinemas’ marketing manager Nicole Oakley explains.
“The situation in the US differs to the practice in place here in the UK. The US system sees film distributors pay for the 3D glasses, providing them to the customer. However Sony seems to be following the UK/European model where exhibitors buy the glasses and provide them to their customers for a small fee, in our case for £1.”
“We encourage our customers to reuse these glasses, from an environmental and economic point of view; it makes sense to all concerned.”
Over at Cineworld theater franchises they encourage users to recycle the RealD 3D glasses provided, but what Nicole says makes more sense, making it more economically and environmentally viable to just keep a pair around.
A spokesperson for Cineworld said;
“Since November 2009, Cineworld Cinemas have implemented a scheme for the purchase of 3D glasses at all Cineworld sites. This is due to the success of 3D and the volume of glasses that require disposal becoming an increasing concern. In an effort to encourage our customers to recycle their existing pairs of glasses Cineworld has separated out the cost of the glasses and reduced the uplift to compensate.”
US panic at the announcement has already seen stock in RealD plummet 15% recently, but don’t yourself panic, as RealD glasses in the UK will still, as always, cost you that extra pound.
Being savvy enough to save your glasses, and not pop the lenses for your awkward Facebook pictures, seems to be the smart choice, or just get smexy Vuzix ones instead.
Let us know your thoughts on our Comments below or via or @Gadget_Helpline twitter page or Official Facebook Group.