Changing the way you see 3-D movies

Consumers soon might pay for the 3-D glasses that they use at a movie theater in addition to the ticket itself.

Sony announced that as of May 1, it will stop footing the bill for the glasses that it provides to movie theaters that screen its 3-D movies. The glasses are estimated to cost Sony up to $10 million per movie.

Other movie studios are expected to follow Sony’s lead, and National Association of Theatre Owners released a terse statement that warned that consumers will pick up the cost of the glasses if the studios don’t.

But Barton Crockett of Lazard Capital Markets says in a report that he doesn’t believe that consumers will end up paying the full amount, because that could lead consumers to avoid 3-D movies at theaters—particularly because 3-D technology is becoming increasingly prevalent in home entertainment devices.