After much praise for the use of 3D in Martin Scorsese’s “Hugo,” San Diego-based 2D-to-3D conversion company Legend3D announced on Tuesday that the company was the primary one responsible for restoring, colorizing and converting to 3D three key sequences depicting early 1900s cinema: Georges Méliès’ “A Trip to the Moon” and “The Merry Frolics of Satan,” and new footage of Ben Kingsley in his role as Méliès.

Most of “Hugo” was shot using 3D camera rigs but for the those three sequences, the Legend3D team, which recently colorized and converted the iconic four-minute sequence of the classic Harold Lloyd silent film “Safety First,” first prepared the source material in 2D, using restorative techniques to stabilize and accentuate the image quality while still retaining the vintage “look.” This material was then converted to 3D to match the overall depth of Scorsese’s native photography.

Rob Legato, visual effects supervisor on “Hugo” previously worked with Legend 3D on “The Aviator.” “Their 2D-to-3D conversion not only exceeded our very high expectations, but their fast turnaround and innate creative attention to detail produced take-one finals every time.”

“Applying VFX and conversion work to some of the first ‘visual effects’ scenes in the history of cinema … this was intrinsically fun,” said  Jared Sandrew, VFX supervisor at Legend3D. “The footage is inherently playful, which made it really come to life when introducing another dimension.”

– By Scott Hettrick

Five 3D movies ranked among the top eight top-grossing films of the holiday weekend, including two new releases, one of which enjoyed 75% of its revenue from 3D.
While Summit’s “Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 1″ remained the leader, and was followed by Disney’s new “Muppets,” Warner’s “Happy Feet Two” in 3D and in IMAX repeated in third place with more than $18 million for a two-week domestic haul of nearly $4 mil.
The two newcomers: Sony’s “Arthur Christmas” collected $17 million over the five-day day weekend at 3,376 screens, 53% of which was from 3D showings, according to BoxofficeMojo.com, and Paramount’s “Hugo” generated $15.4 mil. from just 1,277 screens, thanks to 3D, which accounted for 75%  of that total.

Relativity Media’s “Immortals” 3D stayed strong in 7th place, growing its three-week domestic total to nearly $69 mil., while an eighth place finish for Paramount/DreamWorks’ “Puss in Boots,” also in 3D and IMAX, grew five-week grosses to $135 mil.

There are three more 3D movies coming in December, beginning with the Chipmunks “Chipwrecked” on Dec. 16, followed by Steven Spielberg’s “The Adventures of Tinin” on Dec. 21 and “The Darkest Hour” on Dec. 23.

– By Scott Hettrick

James Cameron is shown in production on a 3D theatrical film of a Cirque du Soleil show at the Mirage resort in Las Vegas in the new episode of “Visionaries: Inside the Creative Mind” on OWN TV, which premiered Sunday night (DISH Network carries the HD version of the network, not DirecTV).
Cameron also is shown at a Los Angeles studio shooting a new 3D demo for theater owners of an enhanced 3D format on a Medieval set featuring actors in a sword fight.
The illuminating segments are part of an entire hour of the new OWN weekly series in which Cameron describes his personal and professional background and his approach to his groundbreaking work. Cameras follow him from awards ceremonies to meeting with small groups of environmental activists.
The following is an outtake from the program featured on the OWN web site in which Cameron and Schwarzenegger discuss the origin of “Terminator,” followed by a 5 1/2-minute video of an extended scene from the program. (So far there does not appear to be any repeats scheduled, but surely there will be in the near future.)

Quickly exploiting a good thing, Disney and Disney-Pixar will release 3D versions of “Beauty and the Beast,” “Finding Nemo,” “Monsters. Inc., and “The Little Mermaid” in theaters in 2012 and 2013.

The announcement comes on the heels of an $80 million run over the past three weekends in U.S. theaters for the 3D version of “The Lion King,” which caught the entire industry off-guard and is now expected to spark a resurgence in the viability of 3D in general and especially for classic makeovers such as the previously announced 2012 3D re-releases of “Star Wars: The Phantom Menace” and “Titanic.”
The Blu-ray 3D version of “The Lion King” hits stores this week.

Ironically, after a disappointing performance in late 2009 of a double-bill of 3D conversions of “Toy Story” and “Toy Story 2″ in advance of the premiere of “Toy Story 3 in 3D,” Disney’s planned theatrical re-release of a 3D version of “Beauty and the Beast” in early 2010 and was delayed a couple times and is now going straight to Blu-ray 3D this week (and it looks every bit as good, if not better than “The Lion King”). “Beauty” had a brief theatrical showing exclusively at the El Capitan Theater in Hollywood last month as a promotion for the Blu-ray 3D release.
Now the 1991 movie that has grossed $380.4 million worldwide and was the first animated film ever nominated for an Academy Award for Best Picture will be released theatrically after all on January 13, 2012.
(Disney also announced today that all three “Toy Story” movies will be released on Blu-ray 3D for the first time Nov. 1.)

Next up for theaters will be “Finding Nemo” in 3D on September 14, 2012. The 2003 Oscar winner for Best Animated Feature was the second highest-grossing film of that year with $867.6 million worldwide.

The studio will try again to use a 3D version of one of its films to promote the sequel when it releases a 3D version of “Monsters, Inc.” January 18, 2013, prior to the debut of “Monsters University” (actually, a prequel) in 3D on June 21, 2013. The original grossed $526.9 million worldwide.

A 3D version of “The Little Mermaid,” which won two Academy Awards and has grossed $228.9 million worldwide will premiere that fall on Sept. 13, 2013.

“Great stories and great characters are timeless, and at Disney we’re fortunate to have a treasure trove of both,” said Alan Bergman, President, The Walt Disney Studios. “We’re thrilled to give audiences of all ages the chance to experience these beloved tales in an exciting new way with 3D – and in the case of younger generations, for the first time on the big screen.”

– By Scott Hettrick 

Disney’s 3D conversion of 17-year-old “The Lion King” roared louder than all its challengers for the second weekend in a row (Sept. 23-25), pawing in another $22.1 million at 2,330 domestic theaters, according to Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures, representing a drop of less than 27% from last week’s industry-stunning $30 mil. re-debut.
And this weekend’s 3D percentage was even up a tick from last weekend’s unprecedented share to 93% of all receipts.

The movie, which had already given a jolt of renewed energy to filmmakers like James Cameron and competing studios considering 3D conversions of their own films, took in another $1.9 mil. from 19 international territories, for a global total of $24 mil. this weekend and a cumulative global gross to date of nearly $78 mil. ($61.7 mil. domestically).

“The Lion King” managed all this despite heated competition from the likes of Sony’s highly-touted “Moneyball,” starring Brad Pitt,  which opened fairly strong but with just under $21 mil., and Warner’s own 3D family entry this week, “Dolphin Tale,” which grossed slightly over $20 mil.

Disney executives are discussing extending the planned limited three-week run of “The Lion King” past October 6 but the studio will be releasing the movie on Blu-ray 3D Oct. 4.

Cameron said the success of “The Lion King” will give confidence to studios who are already planning releases of converted films such as his own “Titanic” next April, “Star Wars” next February, and “Top Gun.”

– By Scott Hettrick