If you were watching movies in the early 2010s, chances are you were watching movies in 3D. The new format was all the rage throughout the decade, with several of Hollywood’s biggest franchises jumping on the bandwagon and filming their movies exclusively for the 3D theatrical experience.

But today, the number of movies released in 3D formats — never mind those filmed with 3D cameras — is steadily dwindling by the year. Has the format really run dry, or is this just a consequence of fewer people seeing movies in theaters?

These were the questions I found myself asking after watching the 3D re-release of Avatar: The Way of Water earlier this month. It had admittedly been years since I’d watched a film in 3D, and I came out of my screening with the same thought that I had when watching Avatar in 2009: everybody should be doing this.

And in 2009, I was right. Every major Hollywood franchise immediately jumped on board with 3D, from Toy Story to Pirates of the Caribbean. Advertisements for this futuristic format were plastered all over theaters, and it was Avatar that set this trend alight. But as the wave died down, and the industry was perfectly poised for another 3D boom, The Way of Water failed to deliver.

3D Movies Became Too Popular For Their Own Good

It’s unfair to say that Avatar was the first major 3D movie, but it was certainly the one that caused audiences to view this format as an enhanced, legitimate way to watch a great film, rather than a cheap gimmick for younger viewers. There were only twelve 3D movies released pre-Avatar in 2008, and the majority of them were animated family films.

By 2010, this number had risen to upwards of sixty. These included brand-new movies filmed exclusively for 3D release (Tangled, How to Train Your Dragon, etc.), and anticipated re-releases that took advantage of the ongoing trend (Shrek, Battle Royale, etc.). Everybody was getting on board, but it soon became clear that not everybody was using 3D technology to its full potential.

The reason Avatar was such a global success in 3D is that James Cameron clearly had a vision for audiences to experience his story this way; there was a clear visual language that shines through the world of Pandora, letting audiences immerse themselves in the story by having it jump through the screen at them.

This wasn’t the case with every movie at the time. It wasn’t long before studios noticed the popularity of 3D movies and began converting their 2D releases into 3D, profiting from the surcharge on tickets. They lacked the same visual depth that Cameron had employed with Avatar, and audiences quickly began to notice.

Avatar made a promise to its audience to take advantage of this new technology and weave an entire story around it, rather than forcing it somewhere it couldn’t reach its full potential. The decline of 3D movies didn’t come until other movies broke this promise, using the technology to take advantage of the hype instead of elevating the movies themselves.

This killed much of the goodwill that movies like Avatar had managed to build for 3D movies, and it didn’t return with The Way of Water. Although the 3D re-release of Avatar in 2022 was largely successful and ended up pulling in another $76 million worldwide, it didn’t feel like the invigoration that this format needed to become as popular as it once was.

Avatar: Fire & Ash Could Be The Revival That 3D Movies Need

While the Avatar franchise has consistently performed excellently in theaters, both in 2D and 3D screenings, audiences have learned to sniff out the supposedly “true” 3D movies from those that are merely looking to make some extra money. This stilted the format’s popularity a great deal, and it prevented The Way of Water from triggering a second 3D boom.

Crucially, none of this means that audiences won’t see 3D movies. Instead, they just need a reason to go out of their way to watch something that uses the format effectively.

Paul Thomas Anderson’s recent revival of VistaVision for One Battle After Another is a perfect example of this; it uses artistic vision and advanced technology to give viewers a reason to make the journey to the theaters. People want to see movies as they were intended to be viewed, and Cameron has frequently spoken about his admiration of 3D.

“I think that Hollywood has done 3D a disservice by embracing post-conversion,” Cameron once said in an interview with VFX Blog. And when asked about his plans for future Avatar sequels, he added, “They will be, to the best of my ability, the best 3D that’s possible to make.” The filmmaker clearly wants this to happen, and that pᴀssion is a great sign.

Cameron’s call-to-action for audiences to watch Avatar: Fire & Ash in 3D needs to be a core element of the film’s marketing if it’s ever going to trigger the second wave of 3D filmmaking that the filmmaker obviously desires.

This is the perfect opportunity to remind audiences exactly what 3D can achieve when it’s implemented correctly, and recover much of the goodwill that Hollywood lost by needlessly post-converting so many 2D movies into 3D throughout the 2010s. People are looking for excuses to see movies on the big screen, and Avatar has always been there with the answer.