Ever since Avatar broke box office records in 2009, Hollywood has been trying to capitalize on 3D technology. Movie studios have been releasing more and more 3D movies with hopes that the general audience will put on the 3D glasses to experience their films. Are 3D films the thing of the future? Are moviegoers embracing the 3D films? Recent data has shown that audiences are, in fact, slowly rejecting 3D films. Instead, they rather experience the films in 2D. The line graph below shows a steady decrease of moviegoers choosing to see the 3D version of a popular film. For example, 71 percent of moviegoers saw Avatar in 3D on opening weekend, where only 41 percent saw Man of Steel, the newest Superman film, in 3D.

It seems that 3D films hit its peak in the years following Avatar. After Avatar became a huge hit, more and more movies were released in 3D, with 2011 having 52 3D movies. 3D released movies in 2012 and 2013 decreased from 2011, perhaps showing a waning interest in the 3D technology.

So, why exactly has the average moviegoer’s reception to 3D cooled in recent years? It very well could be due to the oversaturation of less-than-ideal 3D movies being released. After Avatar, movie studios, instead of filming their movies in 3D (which can be expensive), shot their films in 2D and converted them to 3D (a less expensive process). The problem with the 3D conversion is that the 3D is generally inferior and second-rate compared to the film being actually filmed in 3D. Perhaps, many moviegoers were turned off by the mediocre 3D, which generally came with more-expensive tickets. Comparing the Top 25 movies in 2011 and 2012, it appears the general audience has largely ignored converted 3D films, or that movie studios are listening to the moviegoers’ complaints and actually filming their movies in 3D, rather than converting them. (The Avengers, 2012’s number one film, was converted into 3D, so there are always exceptions to this notion.)