Digital Projection and 3-D Converge

Abstract

For the 2004 Christmas season in IMAX theaters only, Warner Bros. released a stereoscopic version of The Polar Express, an animated feature film by Robert Zemeckis, . It was projected using two 15 perf 70 mm prints, one for each perspective view, using the same kind of interlocked projector technique that used for the 1939 World’s Fair. The 3-D projection was on was huge screens using linear polarization, a selection technique that would have been familiar to Loucks and Norling, the producers of the fair’s stop motion animated In Tune with Tomorrow, but the images were created by a technique that would have astonished them. The Polar Express’ stereopairs were created using computer-generated images, establishing a precedent for the exhibition of three-dimensional animation that continued with the advent of the electro-digital stereoscopic cinema. The Polar Express was released in 3000 theaters using conventional 35 mm planar projection, but 30% of its revenue came from the 3-D IMAX theaters that were only 2% of the venues exhibiting the show.