This actually comes shockingly close on the heels of the recent seven-part opus that Eoin and I undertook about the future of cinema being either in the home or in the theaters.  You can look back on that monster and see how it all boiled out, but just a few hours ago, the crew out at Cinema Blend took a look at 3D and expressed a whole lot of skepticism as to whether or not 3D is the savior that Hollywood was hoping for.

They raised a whole host of good points, including that 3D has been PROVEN to make some people ill, and that 3D has a cripplingly high potential to be overused.

Economics also played a part–remember how I pointed out that a night at the movies costs about twenty four bucks a pop when gas is four bucks a gallon?  With more 3D titles, you can look for the price to go up even more.  I personally loved it when Cinema Blend busted out the line “Think piracy’s a problem now?  Wait until more people are priced out of the movie going market.”

So will 3D play a part in the salvation or the doom of the theater experience?  I personally say doom, because while 3D does have the potential to make the theater experience better (I saw My Bloody Valentine in 3D, without glasses, and there were some big surprises in that one), it makes it more expensive, too.  And if economic conditions persist there’s a lot of potential that the movie going experience will become a rare treat instead of a minor indulgence, and thus, huge piles of money will be lost at the theatrical level.

This in turn will kill the theaters.