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Like many in a preview audience for the movie “Under the Sea 3D” at the Putnam Museum’s IMAX Theatre last week, Caelei Kurylo dodged sharks, sidestepped water snakes and was showered by a sea full of shrimp.
The 8-year-old Davenport girl was among the first audience members for the three-dimensional movie, which opened nationally on Friday.
Caelei is already a fan of 3-D movies, having seen “Hannah Montana in Concert: Best of Both Worlds Tour” last year in theaters.
“It’s kind of cool that it pops out,” she said of the three-dimensional effects.
Movies in 3-D have been a staple at the Putnam since the Davenport museum’s IMAX theater opened almost seven years ago. Putnam President and CEO Kim Findlay said the theater is the only 3-D facility from St. Paul, Minn., to St. Louis and Chicago to Council Bluffs, Iowa.
Dean Fick, the Putnam’s director of theater operations, said 3-D movies consistently outsell their two-dimensional counterparts, most of which are documentaries at the museum.
Several years ago, though, mainstream theaters began getting in on the 3-D bandwagon. The animated children’s tale “Coraline” and the horror movie “My Bloody Valentine” are current 3-D offerings, with at least a dozen more scheduled before the end of the year, including a 3-D concert by pop stars The Jonas Brothers that opens later this month.
Fick said the rush to three dimensions mirrors the first 3-D boom in the 1950s, when the advent of television was seen as a threat to the movies.
Now, the competition comes from computers and state-of-the-art home entertainment systems.
“It’s a threat from people staying home and not coming out anymore that’s leading the charge in the industry at this time,” Fick said.
Both Showcase Cinemas 53 in Davenport and Great Escape Theatres in Moline have 3-D capability, including the digital projection equipment needed for the effect.
Patrick Corcoran, the director of media and research for the National Association of Theatre Owners, said about 1,700 of 38,000 movie screens nationwide have 3D capability.
That number is expected to reach 2,000 by the time “Monsters vs. Aliens,” a 3-D animated movie that was previewed during the Super Bowl, opens late next month. More screens — almost 3,000 — originally were planned for that opening, he said, but the economy is forcing some theaters nationwide to cut back.
Showcase, which showed its first 3-D movie, Disney’s “Chicken Little,” in 2005, now has 3-D capability on three of its 18 screens. Great Escape has 3-D for one of its 14 screens.
Wanda Whitson, the director of corporate communications for National Amusements, which operates Showcase, reports that box office receipts for the 3-D “Coraline” and “My Bloody Valentine” are about six times more than the same titles in 2-D.
Those who recall the original incarnation of 3-D movies, in which audience members viewed the screen through oversized cardboard glasses with one red lens and one blue one, are finding major changes as well.
“This is not your mother’s 3-D,” Whitson said. “It has changed drastically and is a completely new technology from that of the early films of the ’50s like ‘House of Wax’ with Vincent Price. The technology was more complicated, and the glasses and film image on the screen often caused headaches. Today’s technology simplifies the process — and no more headaches.”
The appearance is different as well.
“They kind of look like Ray-Bans,” Corcoran said of the glasses.
Some theaters have a surcharge for 3-D movies and let their patrons keep the glasses. The Putnam, Fick said, has sturdier, reusable glasses that are cleaned between performances. The IMAX glasses have a vertical and horizontal polarization, he said, while some other theaters have a circular polarization in their lenses.
The movie industry is embracing 3-D as well, everyone interviewed for this article said. The Walt Disney Co. has said all of its future animated releases will be in 3-D — including re-releasing “Toy Story” in that format during October. Oscar-winning filmmaker James Cameron (“Titanic”), who has created two 3-D IMAX documentaries, is preparing a 3-D feature film, “Avatar,” to be released in December.
“He didn’t want to put it in theaters until he felt he could do it right,” Corcoran said.
Jessie Jimenez of Davenport, who brought 8-year-old niece Caelei to see the “Under the Sea 3D” preview at the Putnam, said she was impressed upon seeing her first 3-D movie — and also was impressed by the depth shown on the 3-D screen.
“We wish we had a lot more,” she said. “It’s like you’re living it, like it’s real.”
COMING SOON
There are plenty more 3-D movies coming before the end of the year, according to 3DMovieList.com, a Web site that also provides tentative release dates:
“Jonas Brothers: The 3D Concert Experience,” Feb. 27
“Monsters vs. Aliens,” March 27
“Battle For Terra,” May 1
“Up,” May 29
“Ice Age 3: Dawn of the Dinosaurs,” July 4
“Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince,” July 17
“G-Force,” July 24
“Final Destination: Death Trip 3D,” Aug. 21
“Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs,” Sept. 18
“Toy Story in 3D,” Oct. 2
“Disney’s A Christmas Carol,” Nov. 6
“Avatar,” Dec. 18.
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