When Avatar opened in December 2009, about 4,200 of its screens ran on RealD. Four years earlier the company's system had played Disney's Chicken Little on roughly 100 screens, the first commercial 3D shown with digital projection. By 2010 the big chains, AMC, Cinemark and Regal, had RealD in their theaters. That summer, riding the biggest 3D wave Hollywood had ever seen, RealD sold its shares to the public.

Two Founders and a Silver Screen

Michael V. Lewis and Joshua Greer founded RealD in 2003 to bring 3D to audiences everywhere. In 2005 they bought Stereographics, a 3D company founded in 1980. RealD licensed its cinema system to theater owners, who paid for its use, and sold the glasses. Its system threw a bright image that worked on larger screens than most rivals. The bet was that 3D would stop being a gimmick and become a premium ticket for every big film.

Sixteen Dollars a Pair

RealD priced at $16 a share in July 2010 and listed on the New York Stock Exchange as RLD. The company had hopes for 3D televisions at home as well. Those sets never caught on, and audiences grew tired of paying extra for 3D tickets. In 2016 the investment firm Rizvi Traverse took RealD private for $11 a share in cash. Its stock left the exchange that March.

Cover: Mirror View of Cathedral Rocks. Yo Semite Val, Cal., Charles Bierstadt. Art Institute of Chicago, public domain. Chosen for a stereograph, the first 3D picture.