MUMBAI: More than the year-end boost James Cameron’s Avatar gave to the exhibition sector, its effect on the embrace of 3D was even more dramatic.

That was a clear sentiment among a group of exhibitors talking of exhibition trends and challenges at ShoWest’s opening-day offerings.

Said Dallas-based Rave circuit’s CEO Tom Stephenson, "For each new technology, there is a transforming event and for 3D it was Avatar.” 

The panelists said a 3D footprint in many foreign territories that‘s even smaller than in the US has them dreaming of times when the fledgling format can throw off truly extra-dimensional revenue.

With just 10 per cent or less of the screens in markets such as Latin America, Russia and even the U.K. equipped for digital projection, exhibitors there have added 3D capabilities in virtually all existing digital auditoriums.

" Avatar is still doing superb business for us, but we‘re going to have to let those screens go to dragon-lovers," said Paul Heth, chief of the Rising Star circuit in Russia that‘s to open 3D animated feature How to Train Your Dragon.

Treading into the controversial topic of tighter theatrical windows for select films, some of the panelists talked about the inevitability of the shortening windows.