IMAX Screws 3D Fans with Release of "A Wrinkle in Time"

It looks like IMAX is not only doubling down on their belief that people don't want to see 3D movies, they are doubling down HARD!  Despite all the advertisements for Disney's upcoming "A Wrinkle in Time" promoting the new family adventure as a 3D experience, IMAX is projecting almost all of their showings in 2D.  What's more, the movie itself is largely going to be 2D only at many theaters, in one of the biggest 3D purges I've seen the format receive yet.  There are so few 3D showings in California, that I first assumed that the release had been cancelled altogether, until I noticed the few random late night 3D screenings at a couple of Cinemarks.  Because of this it should be noted that IMAX is not the only theater who seems to be taking a hard stance against the 3D showings of "A Wrinkle in Time," but I will focus on IMAX because they are still in a perfect position to prove that the format is still viable.

This whole mess started with their belief that people didn't want to see 3D movies anymore, and that they would start showing less of them.  "Blade Runner 2049" was their first experiment with not showing 3D at all.  The experiment did not result in more tickets being sold, and thus 3D screenings returned in limited form with "Thor: Ragnorok."  When "Star Wars: The Last Jedi" became a smashing hit in 3D, I was hoping we could put this silly notion that 2D only screenings were the way of the future, and that movies that people wanted to see would ultimately sell tickets.  But IMAX decided to push their agenda even father and with more passion with "Black Panther," where there were scant few IMAX 3D screenings to be found (and I had to compromise by seeing it on a less-than-ideal screen size).  While the movie wasn't hurt at the box office with the lack of 3D releases, it's not like the 3D screenings were vacant by any means.

They were mostly filled with people who wanted to see the movie, and many of the standard 3D showings were also filled in the first two weeks of the films release.  Now with "A Wrinkle in Time" though IMAX is pushing harder than ever to show that their method is going to work.  As of this writing there are actually no IMAX 3D screenings of the movie anywhere in California that I can find, and I had to search several states in to find theaters that would show it even once a day.  Since the 2D and 3D can be switched very easily on these projectors, I don't understand why IMAX doesn't at least give viewers the option of which version they would like to see.  Maybe the 3D version can be exclusive to the opening week, and further screenings could be in 2D?  But then, when people went to IMAX they rarely complain when the movies are in 3D, and most seem disappointed when the movie isn't in 3D because they expect it at this point.

Since "A Wrinkle in Time" has been described as being a visual powerhouse where the 3D was very much a focus of the filming process, why gimp the picture with 2D?  People have sent me tweets asking what they should do since they want to see the movie in IMAX, but they also want to see it in 3D.  And I have to tell them quite bluntly that this is a situation where you will most likely have to choose which you'd prefer: IMAX or 3D.  In some rare cases you can have both, but whether those options will be real IMAX screens is another matter altogether.  Personally I think places like the Esquire IMAX, the TLC IMAX, and the Spectrum IMAX should be showing the movie in 3D, as those are the biggest screens, thus the 3D works best there.  But hey, if they are going to play this game, I guess I'll go to one of those late night showings at Cinemark, and hope IMAX wakes up and realizes that if they want to sell more tickets, they have to have better movies (which there is some debate whether this one is).