Before film The basic components of 3D film were introduced separately between 1833 and 1839. Stroboscopic animation was developed by
Joseph Plateau in 1832 and published in 1833 in the form of a stroboscopic disc, which he later called the fantascope and became better known as the
phénakisticope. Around the very same time (1832/1833),
Charles Wheatstone developed the
stereoscope, but he did not really make it public before June 1838. The first practical forms of
photography were introduced in January 1839 by
Louis Daguerre and
Henry Fox Talbot. A combination of these elements into animated stereoscopic photography may have been conceived early on, but for decades it did not become possible to capture motion in real-time photographic recordings due to the long exposure times necessary for the light-sensitive emulsions that were used. Charles Wheatstone got inventor
Henry Fox Talbot to produce some
calotype pairs for the stereoscope and received the first results in October 1840. The idea reached
Jules Duboscq, an instrument maker who already marketed Plateau's Fantascope as well as the stereoscopes of Wheatstone and Brewster. In November 1852, Duboscq added the concept of his "Stéréoscope-fantascope, ou Bïoscope" to his stereoscope patent. Production of images proved very difficult, since the photographic sequence had to be carefully constructed from separate still images. The bioscope was no success, and the only extant disc, without apparatus, is found in the Joseph Plateau collection of the University of Ghent. The disc contains 12 albumen image pairs of a machine in motion. Most of the other early attempts to create motion pictures also aimed to include the stereoscopic effect. In November 1851,
Antoine Claudet claimed to have created a stereoscope that showed people in motion. The device initially only showed two phases, but during the next two years, Claudet worked on a camera that would record stereoscopic pairs for four different poses (patented in 1853). Claudet found that the stereoscopic effect did not work properly in this device, but believed the illusion of motion was successful. In 1855,
Johann Nepomuk Czermak published an article about his Stereophoroskop. His first idea to create 3D animation involved sticking pins in a stroboscopic disc to create a sequence that would show one pin moving further into the cardboard and back. He also designed a device that would feed the image pairs from two stroboscopic discs into one lenticular stereoscope and a vertical predecessor of the
zoetrope. On February 27, 1860,
Peter Hubert Desvignes received British patent no. 537 for 28 monocular and stereoscopic variations of cylindrical stroboscopic devices. This included a version that used an endless band of pictures running between two spools that was intermittently lit by an electric spark. Desvignes'
Mimoscope, received an Honourable Mention "for ingenuity of construction" at the
1862 International Exhibition in London. It could "exhibit drawings, models, single or stereoscopic photographs, so as to animate animal movements, or that of machinery, showing various other illusions." Desvignes "employed models, insects and other objects, instead of pictures, with perfect success." The horizontal slits (like in Czermak's Stereophoroskop) allowed a much improved view, with both eyes, of the opposite pictures. In 1861, American engineer
Coleman Sellers II received US patent No. 35,317 for the
kinematoscope, a device that exhibited "stereoscopic pictures as to make them represent objects in motion". In his application he stated: "This has frequently been done with plane pictures but has never been, with stereoscopic pictures". He used three sets of stereoscopic photographs in a sequence with some duplicates to regulate the flow of a simple repetitive motion, but also described a system for very large series of pictures of complicated motion. On August 11, 1877, the
Daily Alta newspaper announced a project by
Eadward Muybridge and
Leland Stanford to produce sequences of photographs of a running horse with 12 stereoscopic cameras. Muybridge had much experience with stereo photography and had already made
instantaneous pictures of Stanford's horse Occident running at full speed. He eventually managed to shoot the proposed sequences of running horses in June 1878 with stereoscopic cameras. The published result and animated versions for his
zoopraxiscope were not stereoscopic, but in 1898 Muybridge claimed that he had (privately) viewed the pictures in two synchronized zoetropes with Wheatstone's reflecting stereoscope as a "very satisfactory reproduction of an apparently solid miniature horse trotting and of another galloping".
Thomas Edison demonstrated his
phonograph on November 29, 1877, after previous announcements of the device for recording and replaying sound had been published earlier in the year. An article in
Scientific American concluded, "It is already possible, by ingenious optical contrivances, to throw stereoscopic photographs of people on screens in full view of an audience. Add the talking phonograph to counterfeit their voices, and it would be difficult to carry the illusion of real presence much further".
Wordsworth Donisthorpe announced in the January 24, 1878, edition of
Nature that he would advance that conception: "By combining the phonograph with the kinesigraph, I will undertake not only to produce a talking picture of Mr. Gladstone, which, with motionless lips and unchanged expression, shall positively recite his latest anti-Turkish speech in his own voice and tone. Not only this, but the life size photograph itself shall move and gesticulate precisely as he did when making the speech, the words and gestures corresponding as in real life." Dr. Phipson, a correspondent for British news in a French photography magazine, relayed the concept but renamed the device "Kinétiscope" to reflect the viewing purpose rather than the recording option. This was picked up in the United States and discussed in an interview with Edison later in the year. Neither Donisthorpe's or Edison's later moving picture results were stereoscopic.
Early patents and tests In the late 1890s, British film pioneer
William Friese-Greene filed a
patent for a 3D film process. In his patent, two films were projected side by side on screen. The viewer looked through a
stereoscope to converge the two images. Because of the obtrusive mechanics behind this method, theatrical use was not practical.
Frederic Eugene Ives patented his stereo camera rig in 1900. The camera had two lenses coupled together inches (4.45 centimeters) apart. On June 10, 1915,
Edwin S. Porter and William E. Waddell presented tests to an audience at the Astor Theater in New York City. In red-green
anaglyph, the audience was presented three reels of tests, which included rural scenes, test shots of
Marie Doro, a segment of
John Mason playing a number of passages from
Jim the Penman (a film released by
Famous Players–Lasky that year, but not in 3D), Oriental dancers, and a reel of footage of
Niagara Falls. However, according to
Adolph Zukor in his 1953 autobiography
The Public Is Never Wrong: My 50 Years in the Motion Picture Industry, nothing was produced in this process after these tests.
1909–1915: Alabastra and Kinoplastikon By 1909, the German film market suffered much from overproduction and too much competition. German film tycoon
Oskar Messter had initially gained much financial success with the Tonbild synchronized
sound films of his Biophon system since 1903, but the films were losing money by the end of the decade and Messter would stop Tonbild production in 1913. Producers and exhibitors were looking into new film attractions and invested for instance in colorful imagery. The development of stereoscopic cinema seemed a logical step to lure visitors back into the movie theaters. In 1909, German civil engineer August Engelsmann patented a process that projected filmed performances within a physical decor on an actual stage. Soon after, Messter obtained patents for a very similar process, probably by agreement with Engelsmann, and started marketing it as "Alabastra". Performers were brightly dressed and brightly lit while filmed against a black background, mostly miming their singing or musical skills or dancing to the circa four-minute pre-recorded phonographs. The film recordings would be projected from below, to appear as circa 30 inch figures on a glass pane in front of a small stage, in a setup very similar to the
Pepper's ghost illusion that offered a popular stage trick technique since the 1860s. The glass pane was not visible to the audience and the projected figures seemed able to move around freely across the stage in their virtual tangible and lifelike appearance. The brightness of the figures was necessary to avoid see-through spots and made them resemble alabaster sculptures. To adapt to this appearance, several films featured Pierrot or other white clowns, while some films were probably hand-coloured. Although Alabastra was well received by the press, Messter produced few titles, hardly promoted them and abandoned it altogether a few years later. He believed the system to be uneconomical due to its need for special theatres instead of the widely available movie screens, and he did not like that it seemed only suitable for stage productions and not for "natural" films. Nonetheless, there were numerous imitators in Germany and Messter and Engelsmann still teamed with American businessman Frank Joseph Godsol (Goldsoll) set up a short-lived variant named "Fantomo" in 1914. Rather in agreement with Messter or not, Karl Juhasz and Franz Haushofer opened a Kinoplastikon theatre in Vienna in 1911. Their patented system was very similar to Alabaster, but projected life-size figures from the wings of the stage. With much higher ticket prices than standard cinema, it was targeted at middle-class audiences to fill the gap between low-brow films and high-class theatre. Audiences reacted enthusiastically and by 1913 there reportedly were 250 theatres outside Austria, in France, Italy, United Kingdom, Russia and North America. However, the first Kinoplastikon in
Paris started in January 1914 and the premiere in New York took place in the
Hippodrome in March 1915. In 1913,
Walter R. Booth directed 10 films for the U.K. Kinoplastikon, presumably in collaboration with
Cecil Hepworth. Theodore Brown, the licensee in the U.K. also patented a variant with front and back projection and reflected decor, and Goldsoll applied for a very similar patent only 10 days later. After a preview for exhibitors and press in New York City, the film dropped out of sight, apparently not booked by exhibitors, and is now considered
lost. Early in December 1922, William Van Doren Kelley, inventor of the
Prizma color system, cashed in on the growing interest in 3D films started by Fairall's demonstration and shot footage with a camera system of his own design. Kelley then struck a deal with
Samuel "Roxy" Rothafel to premiere the first in his series of "Plasticon" shorts entitled
Movies of the Future at the Rivoli Theater in New York City. Also in December 1922,
Laurens Hammond (later inventor of the
Hammond organ) premiered his
Teleview system, which had been shown to the trade and press in October. Teleview was the first alternating-frame 3D system seen by the public. Using left-eye and right-eye
prints and two interlocked
projectors, left and right
frames were alternately projected, each pair being shown three times to suppress flicker. Viewing devices attached to the armrests of the theater seats had rotary shutters that operated synchronously with the projector shutters, producing a clean and clear stereoscopic result. The only theater known to have installed Teleview was the Selwyn Theater in New York City, and only one show was ever presented with it: a group of short films, an exhibition of live 3D shadows, and
M.A.R.S., the only Teleview
feature. The show ran for several weeks, apparently doing good business as a novelty (
M.A.R.S. itself got poor reviews), but Teleview was never seen again. In 1922,
Frederic Eugene Ives and Jacob Leventhal began releasing their first stereoscopic shorts made over a three-year period. The first film, entitled
Plastigrams, was distributed nationally by
Educational Pictures in the red-and-blue anaglyph format. Ives and Leventhal then went on to produce the following stereoscopic shorts in the "Stereoscopiks Series" released by
Pathé Films in 1925:
Zowie (April 10),
Luna-cy! (May 18),
The Run-Away Taxi (December 17) and
Ouch (December 17). On September 22, 1924,
Luna-cy! was re-released in the
De Forest Phonofilm sound-on-film system. The late 1920s to early 1930s saw little interest in stereoscopic pictures. In Paris,
Louis Lumiere shot footage with his stereoscopic camera in September 1933. The following March he exhibited a remake of his 1895 short film ''L'Arrivée du Train'', this time in anaglyphic 3D, at a meeting of the French Academy of Science. In 1936, Leventhal and John Norling were hired based on their test footage to film MGM's
Audioscopiks series. The prints were by
Technicolor in the red-and-green anaglyph format, and were narrated by
Pete Smith. The first film,
Audioscopiks, premiered January 11, 1936, and
The New Audioscopiks premiered January 15, 1938.
Audioscopiks was nominated for the Academy Award in the category
Best Short Subject, Novelty in 1936. With the success of the two Audioscopiks films, MGM produced one more short in anaglyph 3D, another Pete Smith Specialty called
Third Dimensional Murder (1941). Unlike its predecessors, this short was shot with a studio-built camera rig. Prints were by Technicolor in red-and-blue anaglyph. The short is notable for being one of the few live-action appearances of the Frankenstein Monster as conceived by
Jack Pierce for
Universal Studios outside of their company. While many of these films were printed by color systems, none of them was actually in color, and the use of the color printing was only to achieve an anaglyph effect.
Introduction of Polaroid While attending
Harvard University,
Edwin H. Land conceived the idea of reducing
glare by
polarizing light. He took a
leave of absence from Harvard to set up a lab and by 1929 had invented and patented a polarizing sheet. In 1932, he introduced
Polaroid J Sheet as a commercial product. While his original intention was to create a filter for reducing glare from car headlights, Land did not underestimate the utility of his newly dubbed
Polaroid filters in stereoscopic presentations. In February 1936, Land gave the first public demonstration of Polaroid filters in conjunction with 3D photography at the
Waldorf-Astoria Hotel. The reaction was enthusiastic, and he followed it up with an installation at the New York Museum of Science. In 1939, John Norling shot
In Tune With Tomorrow, the first commercial 3D film using Polaroid in the US. This short premiered at the
1939 New York World's Fair and was created specifically for the Chrysler Motors Pavilion. In it, a full 1939 Chrysler Plymouth is magically put together, set to music. Originally in black and white, the film was so popular that it was re-shot in color for the following year at the fair, under the title
New Dimensions. In 1953, it was reissued by RKO as
Motor Rhythm. Another early short that utilized the Polaroid 3D process was 1940's
Magic Movies: Thrills For You produced by the
Pennsylvania Railroad Co. for the
Golden Gate International Exposition. Produced by John Norling, it was filmed by Jacob Leventhal using his own rig. It consisted of shots of various views that could be seen from the Pennsylvania Railroad's trains. In the 1940s, World War II prioritized military applications of stereoscopic photography and it once again went on the back burner in most producers' minds.
The "golden era" (1952–1954) What aficionados consider the "golden era" of 3D began in late 1952 with the release of the first color stereoscopic feature,
Bwana Devil, produced, written and directed by
Arch Oboler. The film was shot in "Natural Vision", a process that was co-created and controlled by M. L. Gunzberg. Gunzberg, who built the rig with his brother Julian,
Friend Baker and
Lothrop Worth, shopped it without success to various studios before Oboler used it for this feature, which went into production with the title,
The Lions of Gulu. The critically panned film was nevertheless highly successful with audiences due to the novelty of 3D, which increased Hollywood interest in 3D during a period that had seen declining box-office admissions. As with practically all of the features made during this boom,
Bwana Devil was projected dual-strip, with
Polaroid filters. During the 1950s, the familiar disposable
anaglyph glasses made of cardboard were mainly used for comic books, two shorts by exploitation specialist
Dan Sonney, and three shorts produced by
Lippert Productions. However, even the Lippert shorts were available in the dual-strip format alternatively. Because the features utilized two projectors, the capacity limit of film being loaded onto each projector (about , or an hour's worth of film) meant that an intermission was necessary for every feature-length film. Quite often, intermission points were written into the script at a major plot point. During Christmas of 1952, producer
Sol Lesser quickly premiered the dual-strip showcase called
Stereo Techniques in Chicago. Lesser acquired the rights to five dual-strip shorts. Two of them,
Now is the Time (to Put On Your Glasses) and
Around is Around, were directed by
Norman McLaren in 1951 for the
National Film Board of Canada. The other three films were produced in Britain for The
Festival of Britain in 1951 by Raymond Spottiswoode. These were
A Solid Explanation,
Royal River, and
The Black Swan. James Mage was also an early pioneer in the 3D craze. Using his 16 mm 3D Bolex system, he premiered his
Triorama program on February 10, 1953, with his four shorts:
Sunday In Stereo,
Indian Summer,
American Life, and
This is Bolex Stereo. This show is considered lost. Another early 3D film during the boom was the Lippert Productions short
A Day in the Country, narrated by
Joe Besser, which was composed mostly of test footage. Unlike all of the other Lippert shorts, which were available in both dual-strip and anaglyph, this production was released in anaglyph only. April 1953 saw two groundbreaking features in 3D:
Columbia's
Man in the Dark and
Warner Bros.'
House of Wax, the first 3D feature with
stereophonic sound.
House of Wax was (outside of
Cinerama) the first time many American audiences heard recorded stereophonic sound; it was also the film that typecast
Vincent Price as a horror star as well as the "King of 3-D" after he became the actor to star in the most 3D features (the others were
The Mad Magician,
Dangerous Mission, and
Son of Sinbad). The success of these two films proved that major studios now had a method of getting filmgoers back into theaters and away from television sets, which were causing a steady decline in attendance.
Universal-International released its first 3D feature,
It Came from Outer Space, on May 27, 1953, with stereophonic sound. That was followed by Paramount's first 3D feature,
Sangaree with
Fernando Lamas and
Arlene Dahl.
The Walt Disney Studios entered 3D with its May 28, 1953, release of
Melody, which accompanied the first 3D western, Columbia's
Fort Ti at its Los Angeles opening. It was later shown at
Disneyland's Fantasyland Theater in 1957 as part of a program with Disney's other short
Working for Peanuts, entitled,
3-D Jamboree. The show was hosted by the
Mousketeers and was in color. Columbia released several 3D westerns produced by
Sam Katzman and directed by
William Castle. Castle would later specialize in various technical in-theater gimmicks for such Columbia and Allied Artists features as
13 Ghosts,
House on Haunted Hill, and
The Tingler. Columbia also produced the only slapstick comedies conceived for 3D.
The Three Stooges starred in
Spooks and
Pardon My Backfire; dialect comic Harry Mimmo starred in
Down the Hatch. Producer
Jules White was optimistic about the possibilities of 3D as applied to slapstick (with pies and other projectiles aimed at the audience), but only two of his stereoscopic shorts were shown in 3D.
Down the Hatch was released as a conventional, "flat" motion picture. (Columbia has since printed
Down the Hatch in 3D for film festivals.)
John Ireland,
Joanne Dru and
Macdonald Carey starred in the
Jack Broder color production
Hannah Lee, which premiered on June 19, 1953. The film was directed by Ireland, who sued Broder for his salary. Broder counter-sued, claiming that Ireland went over production costs with the film. Another famous entry in the golden era of 3D was the 3 Dimensional Pictures production of
Robot Monster. The film was allegedly scribed in an hour by screenwriter Wyott Ordung and filmed in a period of two weeks on a shoestring budget. Despite these shortcomings and the fact that the crew had no previous experience with the newly built camera rig, luck was on the
cinematographer's side, as many find the 3D photography in the film is well shot and aligned.
Robot Monster also has a notable score by then up-and-coming composer
Elmer Bernstein. The film was released June 24, 1953, and went out with the short
Stardust in Your Eyes, which starred nightclub comedian,
Slick Slavin.
20th Century Fox produced its only 3D feature,
Inferno, in 1953, starring
Rhonda Fleming. Fleming, who also starred in
Those Redheads From Seattle, and
Jivaro, shares the spot for being the actress to appear in the most 3D features with Patricia Medina, who starred in
Sangaree,
Phantom of the Rue Morgue and
Drums of Tahiti.
Darryl F. Zanuck expressed little interest in stereoscopic systems, and at that point was preparing to premiere the new widescreen film system,
CinemaScope. The first decline in the theatrical 3D craze started in August and September 1953. The factors causing this decline were: • Two prints had to be projected simultaneously. • The prints had to remain exactly alike after repair, or synchronization would be lost. • It sometimes required two projectionists to keep sync working properly. • When either prints or shutters became out of sync, even for a single frame, the picture became virtually unwatchable and accounted for headaches and eyestrain. • The necessary silver projection screen was very directional and caused sideline seating to be unusable with both 3D and regular films, due to the angular darkening of these screens. Later films that opened in wider-seated venues often premiered flat for that reason (such as
Kiss Me Kate at the
Radio City Music Hall). • A mandatory intermission was needed to properly prepare the theater's projectors for the showing of the second half of the film. Because projection booth operators were at many times careless, even at preview screenings of 3D films, trade and newspaper critics claimed that certain films were "hard on the eyes." Sol Lesser attempted to follow up
Stereo Techniques with a new showcase, this time five shorts that he himself produced. The project was to be called
The 3-D Follies and was to be distributed by RKO. Unfortunately, because of financial difficulties and the general loss of interest in 3D, Lesser canceled the project during the summer of 1953, making it the first 3D film to be aborted in production. Two of the three shorts were shot:
Carmenesque, a burlesque number starring exotic dancer
Lili St. Cyr, and
Fun in the Sun, a sports short directed by famed set designer/director
William Cameron Menzies, who also directed the 3D feature
The Maze for Allied Artists. Although it was more expensive to install, the major competing realism process was wide-screen, but two-dimensional,
anamorphic, first utilized by Fox with CinemaScope and its September premiere in
The Robe. Anamorphic films needed only a single print, so synchronization was not an issue. Cinerama was also a competitor from the start and had better quality control than 3D because it was owned by one company that focused on quality control. However, most of the 3D features past the summer of 1953 were released in the flat
widescreen formats ranging from 1.66:1 to 1.85:1. In early studio advertisements and articles about widescreen and 3D formats, widescreen systems were referred to as "3D", causing some confusion among scholars. There was no single instance of combining CinemaScope with 3D until 1960, with a film called
September Storm, and even then, that was a blow-up from a non-anamorphic negative.
September Storm also went out with the last dual-strip short,
Space Attack, which was actually shot in 1954 under the title
The Adventures of Sam Space. In December 1953, 3D made a comeback with the release of several important 3D films, including MGM's musical
Kiss Me, Kate.
Kate was the hill over which 3D had to pass to survive. MGM tested it in six theaters: three in 3D and three-flat. According to trade ads of the time, the 3D version was so well-received that the film quickly went into a wide stereoscopic release. However, most publications, including
Kenneth Macgowan's classic film reference book
Behind the Screen, state that the film did much better as a "regular" release. The film, adapted from the popular
Cole Porter Broadway musical, starred the MGM songbird team of
Howard Keel and
Kathryn Grayson as the leads, supported by
Ann Miller,
Keenan Wynn,
Bobby Van,
James Whitmore, Kurt Kasznar and
Tommy Rall. The film also prominently promoted its use of stereophonic sound. Several other features that helped put 3D back on the map that month were the John Wayne feature
Hondo (distributed by Warner Bros.), Columbia's
Miss Sadie Thompson with
Rita Hayworth, and Paramount's
Money From Home with
Dean Martin and
Jerry Lewis. Paramount also released the cartoon shorts
Boo Moon with
Casper, the Friendly Ghost and
Popeye, Ace of Space with
Popeye the Sailor.
Paramount Pictures released a 3D
Korean War film
Cease Fire filmed on actual Korean locations in 1953.
Top Banana, based on the popular
stage musical with
Phil Silvers, was brought to the screen with the original cast. Although it was merely a filmed stage production, the idea was that every audience member would feel they would have the best seat in the house through color photography and 3D. Although the film was shot and edited in 3D,
United Artists, the distributor, felt the production was uneconomical in stereoscopic form and released the film flat on January 27, 1954. It remains one of two "Golden era" 3D features, along with another United Artists feature,
Southwest Passage (with John Ireland and Joanne Dru), that are currently considered lost (although flat versions survive). A string of successful films filmed in 3D followed the second wave, but many were widely or exclusively shown flat. Some highlights are: •
The French Line, starring
Jane Russell and
Gilbert Roland, a
Howard Hughes/RKO production. The film became notorious for being released without an MPAA seal of approval after several suggestive lyrics were included, as well as one of Ms. Russell's particularly revealing costumes. Playing up her sex appeal, one tagline for the film was, "It'll knock
both of your eyes out!" The film was later cut and approved by the MPAA for a general flat release, despite having a wide and profitable 3D release. •
Taza, Son of Cochise, a sequel to 1950s
Broken Arrow, which starred
Rock Hudson in the title role, Barbara Rush as the love interest, and
Rex Reason (billed as Bart Roberts) as his renegade brother. Originally released flat through Universal-International. It was directed by the great stylist
Douglas Sirk, and his striking visual sense made the film a huge success when it was "re-premiered" in 3D in 2006 at the Second 3D Expo in Hollywood. • Two ape films:
Phantom of the Rue Morgue, featuring
Karl Malden and Patricia Medina, produced by Warner Bros. and based on
Edgar Allan Poe's "
The Murders in the Rue Morgue", and
Gorilla at Large, a Panoramic Production starring
Cameron Mitchell, distributed flat and 3D through Fox. •
Creature from the Black Lagoon, starring
Richard Carlson and
Julie Adams, directed by
Jack Arnold. Although arguably the most famous 3D film, it was typically seen in 3D only in large urban theaters and shown flat in the many smaller neighborhood theaters. It was the only 3D feature that spawned a 3D sequel,
Revenge of the Creature, which was in turn followed by
The Creature Walks Among Us, shot flat. •
Dial M for Murder, directed by
Alfred Hitchcock and starring
Ray Milland,
Robert Cummings, and
Grace Kelly, is considered by aficionados of 3D to be one of the best examples of the process. Although available in 3D in 1954, there are no known playdates in 3D, since Warner Bros. had just instated a simultaneous 3D/2D release policy. The film's screening in 3D in February 1980 at the York Theater in San Francisco did so well that Warner Bros. re-released the film in 3D in February 1982. •
Gog, the last episode in
Ivan Tors'
Office of Scientific Investigation (OSI) trilogy dealing with realistic science fiction (following
The Magnetic Monster and
Riders to the Stars). Most theaters showed it flat. •
The Diamond (released in the United States as
The Diamond Wizard), a 1954 British
crime film starring
Dennis O'Keefe. The only stereoscopic feature shot in Britain, released flat in both the UK and US. •
Irwin Allen's
Dangerous Mission released by RKO in 1954 featuring Allen's trademarks of an all-star cast facing a disaster (a forest fire). Bosley Crowther's
New York Times review mentions that it was shown flat. •
Son of Sinbad, another RKO/Howard Hughes production, starring
Dale Robertson, Lili St. Cyr, and Vincent Price. The film was shelved after Hughes ran into difficulty with
The French Line, and was not released until 1955, at which time it went out flat, converted to the SuperScope process. 3D's final decline was in the late spring of 1954, for the same reasons as the previous lull, as well as the further success of widescreen formats with theater operators. Even though
Polaroid had created a well-designed "Tell-Tale Filter Kit" for the purpose of recognizing and adjusting out of sync and phase 3D, exhibitors still felt uncomfortable with the system and turned their focus instead to processes such as CinemaScope. The last 3D feature to be released in that format during the "Golden era" was
Revenge of the Creature, on February 23, 1955. Ironically, the film had a wide release in 3D and was well received at the box office.
Revival (1960–1984) in single strip format Stereoscopic films largely remained dormant for the first part of the 1960s, with those that were released usually being anaglyph exploitation films. One film of notoriety was the Beaver-Champion/Warner Bros. production,
The Mask (1961). The film was shot in 2-D, but to enhance the bizarre qualities of the dream-world that is induced when the main character puts on a cursed tribal mask, these scenes went to anaglyph 3D. These scenes were printed by Technicolor on their first run in red/green anaglyph. Although 3D films appeared sparsely during the early 1960s, the true second wave of 3D cinema was set into motion by Arch Oboler, the producer who had started the craze of the 1950s. Using a new technology called
Space-Vision 3D. The origin of "Space-Vision 3D" goes back to Colonel Robert Vincent Bernier, a forgotten innovator in the history of stereoscopic motion pictures. His Trioptiscope Space-Vision lens was the gold standard for the production and exhibition of 3-D films for nearly 30 years. "Space-Vision 3D" stereoscopic films were printed with two images, one above the other, in a single academy ratio frame, on a single strip, and needed only one projector fitted with a special lens. This so-called "over and under" technique eliminated the need for dual projector set-ups, and produced widescreen, but darker, less vivid, polarized 3D images. Unlike earlier dual system, it could stay in perfect synchronization, unless improperly spliced in repair. Arch Oboler once again had the vision for the system that no one else would touch, and put it to use on his film entitled
The Bubble, which starred
Michael Cole,
Deborah Walley, and
Johnny Desmond. As with
Bwana Devil, the critics panned
The Bubble, but audiences flocked to see it, and it became financially sound enough to promote the use of the system to other studios, particularly independents, who did not have the money for expensive dual-strip prints of their productions. In 1970,
Stereovision, a new entity founded by director/inventor Allan Silliphant and optical designer
Chris Condon, developed a different 35 mm single-strip format, which printed two images squeezed side by side and used an anamorphic lens to widen the pictures through Polaroid filters. Louis K. Sher (Sherpix) and Stereovision released the softcore sex comedy
The Stewardesses (self-rated X, but later re-rated R by the MPAA). The film cost US$100,000 to produce, and ran for months in several markets. eventually earning $27 million in North America, alone ($140 million in constant-2010 dollars) in fewer than 800 theaters, becoming the most profitable 3-Dimensional film to date, and in purely relative terms, one of the most profitable films ever. It was later released in 70 mm 3D. Some 36 films worldwide were made with Stereovision over 25 years, using either a widescreen (above-below), anamorphic (side by side) or 70 mm 3D formats. In 2009
The Stewardesses was remastered by Chris Condon and director Ed Meyer, releasing it in
XpanD 3D,
RealD 3D and
Dolby 3D. The quality of the 1970s 3D films was not much more inventive, as many were either softcore and even hardcore adult films, horror films, or a combination of both. Paul Morrisey's
Flesh For Frankenstein (aka ''Andy Warhol's Frankenstein'') was a superlative example of such a combination. Between 1981 and 1983 there was a new Hollywood 3D craze started by the spaghetti western ''
Comin' at Ya!. When Parasite'' was released it was billed as the first horror film to come out in 3D in over 20 years. Horror films and reissues of 1950s 3D classics (such as Hitchcock's
Dial M for Murder) dominated the 3D releases that followed. The second sequel in the
Friday the 13th series,
Friday the 13th Part III, was released very successfully. Apparently saying "part 3 in 3D" was considered too cumbersome so it was shortened in the titles of
Jaws 3-D and
Amityville 3-D, which emphasized the screen effects to the point of being annoying at times, especially when flashlights were shone into the eyes of the audience. The science fiction film
Spacehunter: Adventures in the Forbidden Zone was the most expensive 3D film made up to that point with production costs about the same as
Star Wars but not nearly the same box office success, causing the craze to fade quickly through spring 1983. Other sci-fi/fantasy films were released as well including
Metalstorm: The Destruction of Jared-Syn and
Treasure of the Four Crowns, which was widely criticized for poor editing and plot holes, but did feature some truly spectacular closeups. 3D releases after the second craze included ''
The Man Who Wasn't There (1983), Silent Madness
and the 1985 animated film Starchaser: The Legend of Orin, whose plot seemed to borrow heavily from Star Wars''. Only ''Comin' At Ya!
, Parasite
, and Friday the 13th Part III
have been officially released on VHS and/or DVD in 3D in the United States (although Amityville 3D
has seen a 3D DVD release in the United Kingdom). Most of the 1980s 3D films and some of the classic 1950s films such as House of Wax'' were released on the now defunct Video Disc (VHD) format in Japan as part of a system that used shutter glasses. Most of these have been unofficially transferred to DVD and are available on the
grey market through sites such as eBay. Stereoscopic movies were also popular in other parts of the world, such as
My Dear Kuttichathan, a
Malayalam film which was shot with stereoscopic 3D and released in 1984.
Rebirth of 3D (1985–2003) In the mid-1980s,
IMAX began producing non-fiction films for its nascent 3D business, starting with
We Are Born of Stars (
Roman Kroitor, 1985). A key point was that this production, as with all subsequent IMAX productions, emphasized mathematical correctness of the 3D rendition and thus largely eliminated the eye fatigue and pain that resulted from the approximate geometries of previous 3D incarnations. In addition, and in contrast to previous 35mm-based 3D presentations, the very large field of view provided by IMAX allowed a much broader 3D "stage", arguably as important in 3D film as it is theatre.
The Walt Disney Company also began more prominent use of 3D films in special venues to impress audiences with
Magic Journeys (1982) and
Captain EO (
Francis Ford Coppola, 1986, starring
Michael Jackson) being notable examples. In the same year, the
National Film Board of Canada production
Transitions (
Colin Low), created for
Expo 86 in Vancouver, was the first IMAX presentation using polarized glasses.
Echoes of the Sun (
Roman Kroitor, 1990) was the first IMAX film to be presented using alternate-eye shutterglass technology, a development required because the dome screen precluded the use of polarized technology. From 1990 onward, numerous films were produced by all three parties to satisfy the demands of their various high-profile special attractions and
IMAX's expanding 3D network. Films of special note during this period include the extremely successful
Into the Deep (
Graeme Ferguson, 1995) and the first IMAX 3D fiction film
Wings of Courage (1996), by director
Jean-Jacques Annaud, about the pilot
Henri Guillaumet. Other stereoscopic films produced in this period include: •
The Last Buffalo (
Stephen Low, 1990) • ''
Jim Henson's Muppet*Vision 3D'' (
Jim Henson, 1991) •
Imagine (John Weiley, 1993) •
Honey, I Shrunk the Audience (Daniel Rustuccio, 1994) •
Into the Deep (
Graeme Ferguson, 1995) •
Across the Sea of Time (
Stephen Low, 1995) •
Wings of Courage (
Jean-Jacques Annaud, 1996) •
L5, First City in Space (
Graeme Ferguson, 1996) •
T2 3-D: Battle Across Time (
James Cameron, 1996) •
Paint Misbehavin (
Roman Kroitor and Peter Stephenson, 1997) •
IMAX Nutcracker (1997) •
The Hidden Dimension (1997) •
T-Rex: Back to the Cretaceous (
Brett Leonard, 1998) • ''Mark Twain's America'' (
Stephen Low, 1998) •
Siegfried & Roy: The Magic Box (
Brett Leonard, 1999) •
Galapagos (Al Giddings and David Clark, 1999) •
Encounter in the Third Dimension (
Ben Stassen, 1999) •
Alien Adventure (
Ben Stassen, 1999) • ''Ultimate G's'' (2000) •
CyberWorld (Hugh Murray, 2000) •
Cirque du Soleil: Journey of Man (Keith Melton, 2000) •
Haunted Castle (
Ben Stassen, 2001) •
Panda Vision (
Ben Stassen, 2001) •
Space Station 3D (
Toni Myers, 2002) •
SOS Planet (
Ben Stassen, 2002) •
Ocean Wonderland (2003) •
Falling in Love Again (Munro Ferguson, 2003) •
Misadventures in 3D (
Ben Stassen, 2003) By 2004, 54% of IMAX theaters (133 of 248) were capable of showing 3D films. Shortly thereafter, higher quality
computer animation, competition from DVDs and other media, digital projection, digital video capture, and the use of sophisticated IMAX 70mm film projectors, created an opportunity for another wave of 3D films. '' with
IMAX camera. In November 2004,
The Polar Express was released as IMAX's first full-length, animated 3D feature. It was released in 3,584 theaters in 2D, and only 66 IMAX locations. The return from those few 3D theaters was about 25% of the total. The 3D version earned about 14 times as much per screen as the 2D version. This pattern continued and prompted a greatly intensified interest in 3D and 3D presentation of animated films. In June 2005, the Mann's Chinese 6 theatre in Hollywood became the first commercial film theatre to be equipped with the Digital 3D format. Both ''
Singin' in the Rain and The Polar Express
were tested in the Digital 3D format over the course of several months. In November 2005, Walt Disney Pictures released Chicken Little'' in Digital 3D format. ''
The Butler's in Love'', a
short film directed by
David Arquette and starring
Elizabeth Berkley and
Thomas Jane was released on June 23, 2008. The film was shot at the former
Industrial Light & Magic studios using
KernerFX's prototype Kernercam stereoscopic camera rig. Ben Walters suggested in 2009 that both filmmakers and
film exhibitors regain interest in 3D film. There was more 3D exhibition equipment, and more dramatic films being shot in 3D format. One incentive is that the technology is more mature. Shooting in 3D format is less limited, and the result is more stable. Another incentive was the fact that while 2D ticket sales were in an overall state of decline, revenues from 3D tickets continued to grow at the time. Through the entire history of 3D presentations, techniques to
convert existing 2D images for 3D presentation have existed. Few have been effective or survived. The combination of digital and digitized source material with relatively cost-effective
digital post-processing has spawned a new wave of conversion products. In June 2006,
IMAX and
Warner Bros. released
Superman Returns including 20 minutes of 3D images converted from the 2D original digital footage.
George Lucas announced that he would re-release his
Star Wars films in 3D based on a conversion process from the company In-Three. Later on in 2011, it was announced that Lucas was working with the company Prime Focus on this conversion. In late 2005,
Steven Spielberg told the press he was involved in patenting a 3D cinema system that did not need glasses, based on plasma screens. A computer splits each film-frame, and then projects the two split images onto the screen at differing angles, to be picked up by tiny angled ridges on the screen. Animated films
Open Season, and
The Ant Bully, were released in analog 3D in 2006.
Monster House and
The Nightmare Before Christmas were released on
XpanD 3D,
RealD 3D and
Dolby 3D systems in 2006. On May 19, 2007
Scar3D opened at the Cannes Film Market. It was the first US-produced 3D full-length feature film to be completed in
RealD 3D. It has been the #1 film at the
box office in several countries around the world, including Russia where it opened in 3D on 295 screens. On January 19, 2008,
U2 3D was released; it was the first live-action digital 3D film. In the same year others 3D films included
Hannah Montana & Miley Cyrus: Best of Both Worlds Concert,
Journey to the Center of the Earth, and
Bolt. On January 16, 2009,
Lionsgate released
My Bloody Valentine 3D, the first horror film and first R-rated film to be projected in
RealD 3D. It was released to 1,033 3D screens, the most ever for this format, and 1,501 regular screens. Another R-rated film,
The Final Destination, was released later that year in August on even more screens. It was the first of its
series to be released in HD 3D. Major 3D films in 2009 included
Coraline,
Monsters vs. Aliens,
Up,
X Games 3D: The Movie,
The Final Destination, ''
Disney's A Christmas Carol, and Avatar. Avatar'' has gone on to be one of the most expensive films of all time, with a budget at $237 million; it is also the highest-grossing film of all time. The main technologies used to exhibit these films, and many others released around the time and up to the present, are
RealD 3D,
Dolby 3D,
XpanD 3D,
MasterImage 3D, and
IMAX 3D. The success of the film also led to electronics manufacturers releasing
3D televisions and caused 3D films to increase in popularity. March and April 2010 saw three major 3D releases clustered together, with
Alice in Wonderland hitting US theaters on March 5, 2010,
How to Train Your Dragon on March 26, 2010, and
Clash of the Titans on April 2, 2010. On May 13 of the same year, China's first
IMAX 3D film started shooting. The pre-production of the first 3D film shot in France,
Derrière les murs, began in May 2010 and was released in mid-2011. On October 1, 2010
Scar3D was the first-ever stereoscopic 3D
Video-on-demand film released through major cable broadcasters for
3D televisions in the United States. Released in the United States on May 21, 2010,
Shrek Forever After by
DreamWorks Animation (
Paramount Pictures) used the RealD 3D system, also released in IMAX 3D.
World 3-D Expositions In September 2003, Sabucat Productions organized the first World 3-D Exposition, celebrating the 50th anniversary of the original craze. The Expo was held at
Grauman's Egyptian Theatre. During the two-week festival, over 30 of the 50 "golden era" stereoscopic features (as well as shorts) were screened, many coming from the collection of film historian and archivist Robert Furmanek, who had spent the previous 15 years painstakingly tracking down and preserving each film to its original glory. In attendance were many stars from each film, respectively, and some were moved to tears by the sold-out seating with audiences of film buffs from all over the world who came to remember their previous glories. In May 2006, the second World 3-D Exposition was announced for September of that year, presented by the
3-D Film Preservation Fund. Along with the favorites of the previous exposition were newly discovered features and shorts, and like the previous Expo, guests from each film. Expo II was announced as being the locale for the world premiere of several films never before seen in 3D, including
The Diamond Wizard and the Universal short,
Hawaiian Nights with
Mamie Van Doren and
Pinky Lee. Other "re-premieres" of films not seen since their original release in stereoscopic form included
Cease Fire!,
Taza, Son of Cochise,
Wings of the Hawk, and
Those Redheads From Seattle. Also shown were the long-lost shorts
Carmenesque and
A Day in the Country (both 1953) and William Van Doren Kelley's two
Plasticon shorts (1922 and 1923).
Audience decline in theaters & 3D streaming (2011–present) In the wake of its initial popularity and corresponding increase in the number of screens, more films were being released in the 3D format, yet fewer people were choosing to see them in such a way. For instance, only 45% of the premiere weekend box office earnings of
Kung Fu Panda 2 in 2011 came from 3D screenings as opposed to 60% for
Shrek Forever After in 2010. In addition, the premiere of
Cars 2 opening weekend gross consisted of only 37% from 3D theatres.
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2 and
Captain America: The First Avenger were major releases that achieved similar percentages: 43% and 40% respectively. In view of this trend, there has been box office analysis concluding the implementation of 3D presentation is apparently backfiring by discouraging people from going to film theatres at all. As Brandon Gray of
Box Office Mojo notes, "In each case, 3D's more-money-from-fewer-people approach has simply led to less money from even fewer people." Parallel, the number of televisions sold with support for
3D television has dropped, let alone those sold with actual 3D goggles. According to the Motion Picture Association of America, despite a record total of 47 3D films being released in 2011, the overall domestic box office receipts were down 18% to $1.8 billion from $2.2 billion in 2010. Although revenues as a whole increased during 2012, the bulk has so far come from 2D presentations as exemplified by little over 50% of filmgoers opting to see the likes of
The Avengers and 32% choosing
Brave in their 3D versions. Conflicting reasons are respectively offered by studios and exhibitors: whereas the former blame more expensive 3D ticket prices, the latter argue that the quality of films in general is at fault. However, despite the perceived decline of 3D in the U.S. market, studio chiefs in 2012 were optimistic of better receipts internationally, where there still appeared to be a strong appetite for the format. Studios are also using 3D to generate additional income from films that are already commercially successful. Such re-releases usually involve a conversion from 2D. For example, Disney has reissued both
The Lion King and
Beauty and the Beast, with plans to add some of its other well-known titles.
Titanic has also been modified for 3D, and there are also plans to similarly present all six
Star Wars films.
Jeffrey Katzenberg, a producer of 3D films and one of the leading proponents of the format, blames oversaturation of the market with inferior films, especially ones photographed conventionally and then digitally processed in
post-production. He claims that such films have led audiences to conclude that the format is not worth the often much higher ticket price. Daniel Engber, a columnist for
Slate, comes to a similar conclusion: "What happened to 3-D? It may have died from a case of acute
septicemia—too much crap in the system." Film critic
Mark Kermode, a noted detractor of 3D, has surmised that there is an emerging policy of distributors to limit the availability of 2D versions, thus "railroading" the 3D format into cinemas whether the paying filmgoer likes it or not. This was especially prevalent during the release of
Prometheus in 2012, where only 30% of prints for theatrical exhibition (at least in the UK) were in 2D. His suspicions were later reinforced by a substantial number of complaints about
Dredd from those who wished to see it in 2D but were denied the opportunity. In July 2017, IMAX announced that they would begin to focus on screening more Hollywood tentpole movies in 2D (even if there's a 3D version) and have fewer 3D screenings of movies in North America, citing that moviegoers in North America prefer 2D films over 3D films. In 2024, 3D films in
4K HDR became available to home media for the first time, with the launch of the
visionOS operating system offering two services to access movies in such formats:
Apple TV and
Disney+. Some films were also offered in
high frame rate (48fps), such as
Avatar: The Way of Water. Other 3D media shot in 8K with a 180-degree view was also made available under the moniker "Apple Immersive Video." In 2025, 3D films became available to
Android XR devices via the
Google TV service, starting with the
Samsung Galaxy XR. ==Techniques==