Tl;dr: look at a 3D tv, move your head to the side. It doesn't work right and your brain knows it. That is the reason they are not going to succeed. I still do

Tl;dr: look at a 3D tv, move your head to the side. It doesn't work right and your brain knows it. That is the reason they are not going to succeed. I still don't think the technology is there. Current stereoscopic offerings don't (can't, perhaps) produce an acceptable simulation of a 3D space. Stereo sound can be faithfully reproduced by multiple speaker setups or even perfectly reproduced by headphones. It's acceptance didn't just hinge on tasteful, realistic usage of the technology but also the fact that it's "close enough" that our brains can fill in the details. Current 3D technology (at least what I've seen in movie theaters) cannot represent a HUGELY important sensory feedback loop at all in that if you move your head the picture doesn't shift. Consider any object in your office. Attempt to investigate and understand it's shape and position with respect to yourself. You, I nearly promise, just wiggled your head back and forth to scan the object and make fuller use of our inherent depth perception machinery. Until that can be accurately simulated with a 3D tv, I don't believe in it. Until that can be accurately simulated for multiple observers with a 3D tv, I don't believe in their use beyond a few first person shooters. There are of course people doing cool stuff with that kind of technology. Cue the obligatory movies of that guy who uses Wiimotes to track head motion. Totally amazing stuff! I believe his tech can get so much closer to truly deceiving my brain into believing the 3D experience than Avatar did and it makes use of a normal TV. As a final coffinnail, even if Wiimote headtracking tech does get into everyone's homes, that stuff depends on having a complete model of the space you're viewing. It'd make for fantastic gaming, but the hurdle to making a movie or TV show like that is another huge technological/economic/social holdup.