DID 3D SURCHARGES CUT DOWN SHREK?

While rising premium pricing for 3D and big-screen presentations of Shrek Forever After had been expected to increase the weekend gross of the movie substantially, some analysts now maintain that it actually reduced it. On its website, New York magazine, noting that moviegoers eagerly paid a 3D surcharge to see Avatar “because it was something they’d never seen before,” said that they were not so willing to pay even more to see another Shrek, something they had definitely seen before. “Moviegoers … may no longer be so eager to pay up for a movie that’s not an event,” it observed. The magazine quoted studio distribution executives as agreeing with that assessment (ticket prices are set by the theaters, not the studios). “Less-than-perfect 3-D coupled with exorbitant up-charges has me fearing consumer pushback,” 20th Century Fox distribution chief Chris Aronson told the magazine. Another unnamed distribution executive for another studio remarked that studios have no say about ticket pricing. “It’s illegal for us to even think about speaking to them about what they charge. But this is insanity.”