Either positive news or a head-scratching annoyance depending on your perspective, the Regal Entertainment Group has just decided to extend its partnership with RealD. Previously, the licensor of 3D technologies had hooked up with the largest theater chain to equip fifteen hundred of its screens with third dimension capabilities; now, that agreement has been doubled to total three thousand screens. Hooray?

In all, this shiny new update will mean almost forty percent of all Regal screens will be 3D compatible. You know how sometimes, especially during the summer, theater chains will play a film in 3D for awhile and then replace it with the 2D version a few weeks later once demand dies down a little bit? That won’t happen nearly as much anymore, which is great for people hellbent on wearing those glasses a few different times for the same film but awful for anyone who chooses to wait a few weeks so they won’t be subjected to a dulled color pallete and the thieving of a few hard earned dollars.

Are people really excited about this shit? Personally, I don’t get it, and the whole thing is all the more confusing because I don’t know a single person that supports this nonsense. It’s a well-known fact that at least half of 3D movies aren’t even particularly suited to be viewed that way, but they’re either shot like that or converted later to inflate box office grosses. If you want to watch something like Avatar in 3D fine, but I see no reason why forty percent of my options should be relegated to this obnoxiousness.