(Key Excerpts)

At the CineAsia distributors and exhibitors trade show here this week, Technicolor Asia is promoting a stop-gap technology designed to help theaters in the two hottest growth markets, China and Indonesia, make the leap from 2D to 3D to earn more money from higher-priced tickets.

The company’s 35mm 3D solution is needed because while films such as Avatar have proven to make more money in 3D, middle-class consumers in many of China’s dozens of second- and third-tier cities with populations of over a million aren’t yet fully ready pay for the costlier 3D tickets that will underwrite expensive new digital hardware.

Technicolor hopes its $25,000 package solution will fill a void for two to three years before China’s digital conversion process is complete, Tim Meade, Technicolor’s Asia Pacific 3D sales and marketing director, told The Hollywood Reporter on the sidelines of the annual three-day CineAsia event.

In 2011, Technicolor will focus its efforts on selling its 3D solution into China and another hot growth market, Indonesia, Meade said, setting the aim of achieving 250 installations in the coming year and about 600 over the next three years.

….

But not everybody’s as bullish on the China opportunity. South Korea’s MasterImage has a stereoscopic 3D system that sells for about $33,500 and has installed 80 of them in South China, the country’s richest region. Sales team manager Dan Zheng said despite exploring opportunities with local sales agents in northern China, most of that business appears to be locked up by state-owned firms or to be going to a cheaper 3D solution from RealD. “Our system may have some technological advances, but in China it’s hard to compete on price point and to catch up,” Zheng said.

…

Archer said that of the world’s current 150,000 cinema screens, only 30,000 are digital and thus, 3D capable. Only 21,000 screens are 3D-ready, worldwide. “It’s 3D that’s driving the switch to digital,” Archer said, noting that Asia show the greatest potential.

….

To bring the point home to CineAsia attendees, Artisan Gateway’s Pow noted that Los Angeles’ population of 17.7 million is served by 2,237 screens, or one for every 7,946 people. Of those, 476 screens are 3D-ready, one for every 37,345 residents. Beijing, by contrast, has 17.5 million people served by 278 screens – one for every 63,129 capital dwellers. Citizens there have access to only 21 3D-ready screens, one for every 83,333 people.

Full story here: http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/asia-faces-3d-conversion-revolution-57852