By Gabriela Resto-Montero
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
KIPS BAY — 3-D moviegoers are in for sticker shock this weekend: The price of IMAX screenings at the AMC Loews Theatre on Second Avenue is jumping $3 to $19.50 beginning Friday.
The cost of regular 3-D films will stay at $15.50 at the Kips Bay theater, but other movie houses across the city are raising the prices of both IMAX and regular movies in 3-D.
At Union Square, Regal Cinemas will increase the price of its regular 3-D screenings to $17 from $16.50.
Loews Lincoln Center will increase the cost of its IMAX 3-D films from $17.50 to $19.50.
While 3-D prices aren't rising at the East Village's City Cinemas this weeked, workers told DNAinfo they expected the price to be hiked in the not too distant future.
At $15.75 per 3-D screening, the Chelsea Clearview Cinmea at 260 West 23rd Street is a relative bargain.
The increases in price come as theaters around the country seek to cash in on the 3-D phenomenon, which has banked millions of dollars for studios even as the country recovered from the recession.
The Sci-Fi adventure "Avatar" blew away audiences with its revolutionary use of 3-D to become the highest grossing movie of all time. Tim Burton's "Alice in Wonderland" followed suit, nabbing the top spot at the box office for weeks.
But the pricing ploy may backfire as critics and movie watchers wear out from the novelty of 3-D films, famed movie critic Roger Ebert argued on his Twitter feed.
“3-D is a distracting, annoying, anti-realistic, juvenile abomination to use as an excuse for higher prices,” Ebert wrote.
The new pricing will be tested on April 2 with the 3-D release of “Clash of the Titans,” starring Australian actor Sam Worthington, who also appeared in "Avatar."
