Why America Fell in Love With 3D Movies

Decades before audiences were immersed in the glowing worlds of Avatar, filmmakers experimented with three-dimensional illusions to build bigger, bolder movie experiences.

In the 1950s, studios embraced that technology to entice audiences back into theaters, a strategy Hollywood has returned to again and again.

Eager for escapism in the immediate aftermath of World War II, 90 million Americans flocked to their nearest movie theater every week. But by the 1950s, film attendance started to dwindle. Young couples who regularly went to the movies were starting families and moving out to the suburbs, where there were fewer cinemas, explains Allison Whitney, professor of film and media studies at Texas Tech University.

This also coincided with the rise of television. Rather than venturing out to movie theaters, people now had the chance to watch content on CBS, NBC and ABC in the comfort of their own homes. 

Hollywood studios needed to do something to lure audiences back into theaters. “They had to make going to the movies a bigger event,” Whitney says. Studios turned to recent technological advancements to make the silver screen experience more immersive, and for a brief time, moviegoers leapt at the chance to experience film in a new way.

In the early 1950s, home televisions were small (about 21 inches wide at most) and limited to black-and-white broadcasts produced on modest budgets. In contrast, moviegoers only had to pay around 46 cents (a little more than $6 adjusted for inflation in 2025) to watch the most glamorous Hollywood stars in high-quality color productions shown on giant projections. To capitalize on the size of theater screens, studios made and promoted films in different widescreen formats, such as Cinerama, VistaVision and Cinemascope. They also started experimenting with 3D.

3D technology uses special glasses and dual-projected images to create the illusion of depth, making on-screen action appear to extend out into the audience’s space.

Photographers (and later filmmakers) had been experimenting with 3D effects since the invention of photography, itself, in the 19th century. But the technology during that era was not ready for mainstream use, says Robert Furmanek, president and founder at 3-D Film Archive. 

In 1922, the company Perfect Pictures produced what is widely regarded as the first 3D feature film, The Power of Love. However, it was not released in its intended 3D format due to technical and commercial challenges.

Further advances in immersive visual effects appeared in Chrysler’s exhibition at the 1939 World’s Fair. In collaboration with Polaroid, they created a promotional film that depicted a Plymouth automobile seemingly constructing itself while parts flew off the screen.

The most significant 3D breakthrough came in the early 1950s, when collaborators Milton Gunzburg and Friend Baker developed the Natural Vision camera system. Their system used two cameras mounted side-by-side: one representing the left eye and the other the right. Filmmakers could adjust the camera lenses and point of convergence. By capturing slightly offset images that mimicked human binocular vision, they could manipulate how far objects appeared to extend toward the audience or recede into the background, creating the signature 3D illusion.

Released on November 26, 1952, Bwana Devil is credited as the first feature-length 3D film in color, kick-starting the 3D craze. The adventure film revolved around an engineer hunting two man-eating lions in Kenya. Its tagline: “A lion in your lap! A lover in your arms!”

Bwana Devil was an immediate success when it opened in just two theaters in Los Angeles. “The lines were around the block,” Furmanek says. Released nationwide by United Artists in April 1953, Bwana Devil grossed more than $2.5 million on a budget of approximately $400,000.

“Pretty much every studio went into 3D production from January 1953,” Furmanek says. Columbia Pictures’ Man in the Dark, completed in only 11 days and released on April 9, 1953, was quickly followed by Warner Bros.’ House of Wax later that month. Produced for about $1 million, House of Wax grossed $23.75 million, showing just how lucrative 3D movies could be.

While many 3D films received poor reviews, Whitney credits their “experimental” and “playful” approach to storytelling. “There are moments in House of Wax where they quite overtly break the fourth wall,” she says.

Over the course of 1953, MGM’s Kiss Me Kate, Warner Bros.’ Hondo, Columbia’s Miss Sadie Thompson and Paramount’s Money From Home were all released in 3D to some success, though none came close to the success of House of Wax’s box-office haul. 

Theaters and projectionists found it “very challenging to project the films” in 3D correctly, explains Whitney. In order for the illusion to be effective, two 35-millimeter projectors had to be run simultaneously. If they were even a second off, viewers’ eyes would strain, and would get headaches, she explains.

The thrill of wearing flimsy, polarized glasses to make objects look as though they were coming out of the screen also began to wear off. “Angry customers wanted refunds. The films themselves weren’t getting good word of mouth. 3D just began to peter out," says Whitney.

Studios stopped requiring 3D screenings by October 1953 because of “the technical problems and complaints,” adds Whitney. When Dial M for Murder, directed by Alfred Hitchcock, was released in May 1954, Warner Bros. head Jack Warner dropped his 3D demand entirely. “By the summer of 1954, 3D movies were pretty much dead,” Furmanek says.

Some filmmakers tried other cinematic gimmicks to keep viewers coming to theaters. Famously, director and producer William Castle had a skeleton with red eyes float over the audience on a wire during The House on Haunted Hill in 1959. That same year, theater chairs were attached with motors for his film The Tingler, so they’d vibrate during intense moments. And toward the end of Mr. Sardonicus, Castle appeared on screen to give viewers the chance to pick the ending of the 1061 film, even though only one conclusion had actually been created. 

One gimmick that made a larger cultural impact was the drive-in movie. “That created a different kind of cinema experience that got audiences living in the suburbs to watch movies in a different way," says Whitney.

Since the mid-1980s, 4D films have also slowly risen in popularity, as more screens become equipped with vibrations, smells, strobe lights and even weather elements to impact viewers. The Sensorium (1984) released certain scents to fit with its story, Captain EO (1986) incorporated lasers and smoke, while movies like Iron Man 3 (2013), Twisters (2024) and The Wizard of Oz at the Sphere have used various special effects—like fog, wind and mist—to increase immersion. 

Furmanek expects 3D movies to make a comeback. The trend usually returns every 15 to 20 years, he says: “When a new generation comes along that hasn’t experienced 3D, they’re curious and anxious to see it. There were some in the ’70s, a short revival in the ‘80s and it had a big resurgence in the 2000s with Hugo and Avatar. It can be incredibly effective. But it doesn’t lend itself to every movie, and you can’t expect an audience to go every week to see a new 3D movie.”