Russian moviegoers complain about the poor quality of Avatar 3 and screenings only in 2D / Cultural news of Krasnoyarsk and the Krasnoyarsk Territory / Newslab.Ru

Russians in different cities complained that cinemas are showing the film “Avatar 3” in pirated quality and only in 2D format, reports the publication “Business FM”.

The third part of James Cameron's legendary film Avatar: Fire and Ash was released worldwide in December last year, but in Russia the premiere was postponed in favor of domestic films, which ultimately showed good box office receipts. But “Avatar 3” appeared in Russian cinemas only on January 15, and only in 2D format, although the 3D format was initially indicated in the cinema schedule.

Thus, a Krasnoyarsk resident told Newslab that in early January he booked tickets at the Luch cinema specifically for a 3D screening – information about this was on the cinema’s website. However, before going to the cinema on January 17, he decided to reschedule his reservation and saw that on the cinema’s website all screenings were now in 2D – but the ticket price had not changed. On the phone, “Luch” told him that this happened for reasons beyond their control, and the release date of the film in 3D is unknown. As of January 20, all screenings in Krasnoyarsk cinemas are only in 2D format.

The first screenings of the blockbuster immediately attracted a number of negative reviews. Someone writes about a jumping faded image. Others are about catastrophically bad sound or incorrect color reproduction. Similar messages came from St. Petersburg, Moscow and even Minsk. Let us note that tickets for “Avatar” in the capital’s cinemas cost from 500 to 2000 rubles.

“A few days before the release, there was information that the supplier of this “gray” cinematic import to Russia had either changed or somehow changed its conditions and our cinemas were not able to quickly purchase copies of good quality. And “Avatar” requires excellent quality. Cinemas failed to agree on 3D. I looked at the cinemas on Thursday and Friday: they don’t show 3D anywhere,” said Evgeniy Ukhov, editor of the Film.ru portal.

Among those who saw “Avatar 3” in a cinema in Moscow was actor and screenwriter Denis Kosyakov:

“The viewing experience is monstrous. “Avatar” is the film for which I was going to go to Belarus or even fly to Kazakhstan. I respect Cameron too much to watch Avatar at home, and I thought: well, I watched the first two Avatars in Moscow, which means the third one will be in decent quality. How wrong I was. There were terrible problems with quality. It felt like it was a screen – cloudy, dark, the movements were somehow blurry, there was a complete feeling that now shadows should be walking across the screen, like on old pirate screens. It was impossible to watch, the sound seemed to be more or less, but definitely not Dolby Digital.”

Denis Kosyakov adds that such low image quality seriously interfered with viewing:

“It was incredibly annoying. All the time I wanted to pause and increase the brightness and wipe the lens. It was quite difficult to watch. In terms of price-quality ratio, this is, of course, monstrous. 1900 rubles per ticket. That is, I paid 8 thousand rubles for my family, and that’s just for tickets, plus popcorn – the smallest one costs 800 rubles. A trip to the cinema costs a little more than 10 thousand rubles. And to watch a film of monstrously poor quality for this money, even on a huge screen, is an insult to me. And in an amicable way, of course, they should return the money, because this is a fraud, poor quality. They write on the website that they do not have IMAX quality, but at the same time they write that they have new lasers and they, and this is literally, “perfectly calibrated the image.” And this is already misleading the consumer, because it is a lie, because such an image cannot be called ideal under any circumstances. This is a monstrously bad pirate image.”

Apparently, some cinemas are showing a so-called “screen” – a copy taken directly from the projector lens, experts say. Previously high-quality copies indistinguishable from the original and shown in Russian cinemas in the “pre-show service” formatprovided by WesternRus – it sold cinemas have keys to show unavailable Hollywood premieres.

The ProfiCinema publication reported in June 2023 that WesternRus had suspended its activities. The journalists referred to a message in the company’s closed Telegram channel. The supplier decided to stop working indefinitely, citing high levels of piracy as the main reason. The cinemas themselves, as well as third-party contractors, distributed keys with localized films already imported from Kazakhstan, bypassing WesternRus. The company noted that the releases do not pay off well, and stated that the cost of a key for one hall in the current conditions is too low.

According to media reports, WesternRus coordinated deliveries via Telegram, providing cinemas with keys for a week of screening at a time. In the first week, such keys cost about 100 thousand rubles, after which the price gradually decreased. An anonymous source from ProfiCinema said that for several months WesternRus has had to compete with other companies – for example, the dubbing studio Red Head Sound, which began providing its own audio tracks at reduced prices. However, key suppliers from Kazakhstan were unable to maintain their position, even by offering discounts to customers.

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