‘Bloom is off the rose’ for 3D —DreamWorks CEO

Disney-Pixar’s “Cars 2” is one example of a Hollywood movie that would be released in the Philippines using the so-called three-dimensional technology. AP

ASPEN—DreamWorks Animation chief executive Jeffrey Katzenberg said Tuesday that Hollywood “greed” is responsible for a glut of lousy 3D movies and weak ticket sales.

Katzenberg, speaking at the Fortune Brainstorm Tech conference here, also said high-quality 3D television without the special glasses will be available within four to six years but it will be 10 to 15 years before movie-goers can enjoy 3D without glasses.

The former top Disney executive is one of the leading proponents of 3D in Hollywood and his California animation studio is responsible for hit films such as “Shrek,” “Madagascar” and “Kung Fu Panda.”

But Katzenberg said movie-goers appear to have turned their backs on 3D at the moment.

“For sure, the bloom is off the rose for a moment in time, driven by a singular and unique characteristic that only exists in Hollywood: greed,” he said.

“There were, unfortunately, a number of people who thought that they could capitalize on what was a great, genuine excitement by movie-goers for a new premium experience, and thought they could just deliver a kind of low-end crappy version of it, and people wouldn’t care,” Katzenberg said.

“Nothing could have been further from the truth.”

Katzenberg said “Hollywood has managed to grasp defeat from the jaws of victory here” but he predicted a resurgence for three-dimensional film technology.

“With time we’ll get back there again, but it’s only going to come by understanding and embracing this as a creative, storytelling tool, and a way of giving an enhanced movie theater experience, premium experience,” he said.

Katzenberg said 3D without glasses would eventually be available on TV sets and in movie theaters.

3D “will come into the living room without glasses in an OK way in a very few years,” the DreamWorks CEO said. “It will come into the living room in a pretty high quality manner probably in four to six years.

“It will probably be the better part of 10 or 15 years before it actually can come into the movie theatres,” he said. “There are a lot of technical hurdles to doing it, but it will happen in our lifetimes.

“Looking around, I think I’m the oldest one in the room, so I think it will happen in my lifetime,” said the 60-year-old Katzenberg.