In the wake of "Avatar" and its worldwide success, everyone immediately started talking about "the 3D bump," and the assumption was that the public would happily pay a surcharge for such amazing sights.   Turns out, that may not be the case, and if 3D is going to survive, studios are going to have to settle for simply using it as a process like color or sound.  You don't charge more for those, so you can't ask the public to accept an inflated ticket price, especially when you then drop a crappy post-conversion like "Clash Of The Titans" on them.  Even the films that used it right, like "How To Train Your Dragon," did not make their money based solely on the 3D, but on good old-fashioned word-of-mouth because they delivered as films and not just as souped-up theme park rides.  3D is a tool, just one more thing that filmmakers can use in storytelling, and as soon as studios accept that and stop treating it like a band-aid that will cure all box-office woes, both filmmakers and audiences will be able to enjoy it more.  There will be some great post-conversions in the near future (count on Cameron getting "Titanic" just right) and some films that make great use of the camera systems as well, but what will ultimately make those films work or not at the box-office will be how much the audience enjoys them, not how many dimensions it's projected in.
 

- Drew McWeeny