The spread of new 3-D movie technology to theaters around the world has been slower than expected, but its prospects remain strong because it offers a better visual experience, DreamWorks Animation SKG Inc. Chief Executive Jeffrey Katzenberg said Tuesday.
Promoting the new DreamWorks 3-D animated movie “Monsters vs. Aliens,” Katzenberg told The Associated Press in an interview that it takes about $100,000 to upgrade traditional theaters with new digital projectors and 3-D equipment.
“It’s harder to get financing right now,” he said, referring to the global financial downturn.
Katzenberg said there are about 2,000 3-D capable theaters in the U.S. and another 1,500 outside America, with about 200 in mainland China, several hundred in the United Kingdom and another 100 in France.
He said he expects those numbers to “multiply several times” in the next year or two because the new technology is significantly better than the previous generation of 3-D, saying they compare like “a horse and buggy” and a “Ferrari.”
In the meantime, “Monsters vs. Aliens,” which opens in the U.S. on Friday, will be released worldwide in both 2-D and 3-D formats, with about 15 to 20 percent of theaters releasing the movie in 3-D.
Katzenberg said the typical DreamWorks animated movie costs about $150 million to make and a 3-D movie adds another $15 million to the budget.
Supreme Court Seems Likely To Uphold A Law That Could Force TikTok To Shut Down On Jan. 19
The Supreme Court on Friday seemed likely to uphold a law that would ban TikTok in the United States beginning Jan. 19 unless the popular social media program is sold by its China-based parent company.
Hearing arguments in a momentous clash of free speech and national security concerns, the justices seemed persuaded by arguments that the national security threat posed by the company's connections to China override concerns about restricting the speech either of TikTok or its 170 million users in the United States.
Early in arguments that lasted more than two and a half hours, Chief Justice John Roberts identified his main concern: TikTok's ownership by China-based ByteDance and the parent company's requirement to cooperate with the Chinese government's intelligence operations.
If left in place, the law passed by bipartisan majorities in Congress and signed by President Joe Biden in April will require TikTok to "go dark" on Jan. 19, lawyer Noel Francisco told the justices on behalf of TikTok.
At the very least, Francisco urged, the justices should enter a temporary pause that would allow TikTok to keep operating. "We might be in a different world again" after President-elect Donald Trump takes office on Jan. 20. Trump, who has 14.7 million followers on TikTok, also has called for the deadline to be pushed back to give him time to negotiate a "political resolution." Francisco served as Trump's solicitor general in his first presidential term.
But it was not clear whether any justices would choose such a course. And only Justice Neil Gorsuch sounded like he would side with TikTok to find that the ban violates the Constitution.
Gorsuch labeled arguments advanced by the Biden administration' in defense of the law a... Read More