3D Still A Hit With Foreign Audiences, But Domestically It's a Different Story

Thanks to a 3D overhaul, "Jurassic Park" roared back into theaters last weekend, racking up nearly$20 million domestically despite being twenty years old. That success is an exception to how 3D has been performing in this country.

Like the theatrical movie business it was counted on to revive, 3D is growing, but its expansion is being fueled by foreign, not domestic, audiences.

In China and Russia, 3D showings of films routinely contribute between 80 percent to 90 percent of their box office take, according to Michael Lewis, the CEO and chairman of RealD. In the United States, that figure is between 40 percent to 60 percent.

“In places like China, the blush is still on the rose,” Ian Jessel, president of Legend 3D, which handles 3D conversions for films like “Top Gun,” toldTheWrap. "It’s considered trendy and very hip, and all these theaters are desperate for 3D product."

Stateside, the number of 3D releases fell from 45 in 2011 to 36 in 2012, according to the Motion Picture Association of America. Meanwhile, cineplexes are being built in Asia at the rate of nine screens per day, with six of those equipped for 3D, according to Jessel.