`Monster House': Nearly Thrice as Good in 3-D

`Monster House' opened last Friday in 3553 locations, where it averaged $6,253 in ticket sales per screen.

The 3-D version, shown on 163 screens, earned $16,012, according to E Online.

Quite a diff.

Real D, which makes the 3-D projection gear, put out a triumphant press release:

The 3D per-theatre location average for MONSTER HOUSE was more than $15,000 opening weekend, July 21. More than 11% of the gross for MONSTER HOUSE came out of the 178 screens that were playing the film in the REAL D Digital 3D format – this means that less than 5% of theatres showing MONSTER HOUSE delivered more than 11% of the box-office gross.

(I wonder about the disparity between Real D's numbers and those reported by E Online...but it still looks like a roughly $10,000 difference in per screen average between 2-D and 3-D, whatever the exact tally.)

Last year, Disney's `Chicken Little' grossed $11,000 per screen at conventional theaters in its opening weekend, and $25,000 in the 80 theaters that played the 3-D version.