Hollywood will push for 3D TV

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Bill Radke: Twentieth Century Fox is releasing Avatar on DVD. You know sales of DVDs dropped last year 13 percent. But Marketplace’s Jennifer Collins reports Hollywood could be banking on a three-dimensional strategy to make sales pop.

Jennifer Collins: One of Avatar’s biggest selling points is that it literally reaches out of the screen.

AVATAR: You are on Pandora.

Theaters showing the film in 3D brought in three-quarters of U.S. revenues, but the DVD out today is only in two dimensions. Porter Bibb is with Mediatech Capital Partners, and he says there’s a reason:

Porter Bibb: Well, there are probably three people in the United States who have 3D TV sets right now.

Companies like Sony are making the sets, so Bibb expects Fox to release Avatar’s 3D disc next year. Video analyst Kurt Scherf says Hollywood is trying to add a new dimension to DVD sales:

Kurt Scherf: I certainly think that it could help increase the revenues and somewhat stabilize revenues for the next few years.

Assuming more than just three people buy those 3D sets.

I’m Jennifer Collins for Marketplace.