`Overpriced and over-hyped` 3D films find few takers

London -  3D films were heralded as the future of cinema, but their tickets are overpriced and often fail to live up to the hype, a new study has revealed.

According to the research undertaken by Mintel, only a fifth of cinemagoers feel that 3D films are worth the inflated ticket prices.

Films shown in 3D offer viewers deeper, three-dimensional images but tickets can cost up to 40 percent more than tickets to traditional 2D films.

However only three in ten cinema-goers admitted that 3D films really improve the viewing experience.

Meanwhile, three-quarters of people believe that the price of the 3D glasses - which are necessary to view the films and can add an extra 1.50 pounds to the cost of the ticket – should be  included in the price.

People’s generally negative perception of 3D films has coincided with a dramatic drop in the number of people going out to watch them.

According to Mintel, 22 percent of all box office tickets sold in 2011 were for 3D films. This was down from 28 percent in 2010.

Although the steep decline was partly due to the huge success of Oscar-winning Avatar in 2010, there are other factors at play.

“People who have been to 3D movies say that they like them technically but they don’t think they are particularly good value for money,” the Telegraph quoted Michael Oliver, leisure analyst

at Mintel and the author of the report, as saying.

He said that poor-quality 3D titles have dented people’s enjoyment of the films.

“The problem is that some films work very well in 3D and others don’t. And it’s the ones that don’t that really damage the industry because everyone has jumped on the bandwagon and

thought this is a really good way to get an extra 40 per cent in ticket revenues, and it doesn’t really work that well,” Oliver said.

He also attributed the strained economic condition of the people to making them think twice before going for 3D movie.

“People look at 3D and think ‘another 40 per cent’. If you are a family with three children and you are going to buy loads of popcorn and drinks then an extra 40pc on 4 tickets makes quite a

big difference, so a lot of people have traded down to 2D,” he said.

The number of 3D digital screens in the UK has increased 30-fold in the last five years.

There were just 47 3D screens in 2007 - equivalent to 8 per cent of all screens in the UK. This figure increased to 1,475 last year – equivalent to 71 per cent of all screens.

“It has got its place and when used correctly and properly it adds tremendously to the experience. But it is not suited to every single film that comes out,” he said.

It is not only 3D films that cinema-goers see as over-priced.

Nine out of ten people said that food and drink at cinemas is too expensive, while four in ten people admitted to taking their own supplies into cinemas when they watch a film.

“Rather than spend loads in the cinema people are going to Tesco Express and buying it cheaper,” Oliver added.

Mintel surveyed over 1,600 adults.