You Have a VERY Limited Time to See "Ratchet & Clank" in 3D!

 

If you are one of the few people who want to see "Ratchet & Clank" in theaters you might want to hurry: It bombed hard at the box office with a mighty "clank" this weekend.  Making under $5 million dollars in its opening weekend (to all the young kids out there: That isn't a lot of money for an animated movie), it just barely beat out "Zootopia" for sixth place at the box office!  The critical lashing the film has received also insures that this isn't going to become a sleeper hit.  I expect it to be in theaters for a few weeks at the most before it is quietly released on DVD.  So if you want to see the movie in theaters, you might want to hurry.  Also, if you want to see the movie in 3D, you really want to hurry because that's likely not going to last beyond this week.  Because "The Jungle Book" and "Batman v Superman" are still in theaters, many movie houses opted not to show "Rachet & Clank" in 3D at all.

The few theaters that do show it in 3D normally only have two showings of it a day (with most of them showing it in the early afternoon).  This sort of reminds me when "Avatar," "Alice in Wonderland," and "How to Train Your Dragon" were all fighting for space in the coveted 3D screens that were few and far between.  The situation is different now in the sense that pretty much every screen can project 3D if it's digital (which almost all of them are), but the demand for the format has gone down enough that theaters don't want to dedicate too much screen time to the premium format.  When it comes to family films they are probably correct in assuming most families would prefer to save $3 dollars a ticket rather than get an immersive experience, so unless a family film shows to have some strong legs with teenagers and adults (like "The Jungle Book") they would rather just show the movie in 2D instead of risk frugal parents not buying a ticket at all.

The fact that "Ratchet & Clank" got some 3D screens at all is to be commended.  This isn't the most eagerly awaited movie so 3D showings of the film were always likely to be played in empty houses.  It should also be noted that I live in the LA area where most theaters have at least twenty screens and there's a theater every five miles, so you can find ANYTHING here (including screenings of "Purple Rain" at the moment)!  If I'm having a hard time finding 3D screenings of "Ratchet & Clank" I can only imagine how rare it's going to be for people in less populated states in America.  Having seen the movie in 3D there are some nice effects and it was pretty clear the film makers intended the visuals to have a three dimensional punch to them.  Of course it doesn't make the movie any good and if it disappears without you seeing it you probably won't be missing anything.  However, in all fairness, if you do want to see this in 3D my suggestion is not to wait, because "Ratchet & Clank" itself won't last long in theaters (and the 3D version will be gone even sooner).