3-D ‘Erotic Comedy’ Scores Big in Hong Kong

It was bound to happen, of course. With 3-D ever more popular at the box office, it was only a matter of time before 3-D porn started popping up in the theaters.

Sex and Zen: Extreme Ecstasy — a remake of a 1991 Hong Kong movie of the same name — took in HK$2.78 million (US $0.36 million) on its first day, breaking the record previously held by James Cameron’s Avatar (HK$2.63 million). In the five days following its release, the movie raked in HK$17 million.

And Sex and Zen was only one of three movies racing to be the first next-generation 3-D porn flick, according to the BBC. The others were Tinto Brass’ threatened remake of Caligula and an Avatar spoof backed by Hustler magazine.

Those who prefer to watch porn in the privacy of their home needn’t feel left out; they will soon also have access to 3-D erotica. Penthouse magazine has announced a 3-D high-definition satellite porn channel in Europe that will air original content from 11 p.m. to 5 a.m. every day, with 30 hours of new content each month.

Adding to the fun, April saw the DVD release of Shortcuts 3-D, which French director Tom Sridix describes as the first truly immersive high-definition 3-D adult film. (In fact, the first 3-D Blu-ray porn movie — Erotek Dimensions 3D — hit retail in November. That may not have been high-def, though, or even especially immersive.)

Here’s why this is important: Pornography has long been a major driver of technology change and adoption — fueling the development of online streaming video, for example — and could help to tip the scales in favor of 3-D media.

3-D is already relatively well established at the multiplex, but as Photonics.com editor Ashley Paddock recently noted (See: 3-D TV: Here to Stay?), consumers are still somewhat on the fence about 3-D television. As ridiculous as it may seem, 3-D erotica could help to turn this around.

As with 3-D TV generally, though, the key is in providing quality content that will outlast the novelty of the medium. Bill Margold is an historian of the adult industry, as well as producer and director of many adult films and star of such movies as 1977’s “Disco Dolls in Hot Skin,” an early example of 3-D porn.

“Porn and 3-D have been around for a while,” he told AOL News in March. “But there is a tendency among filmmakers to show off the technique as opposed to concentrating on the story. This has been a problem regardless of whether the film is mainstream or adult.”