The cost of shooting films in 3D is far outweighed by the benefit to the consumer, says James Cameron, the director of the highest grossing film of all time, Avatar.
Mr Cameron told an audience at the opening of the Abu Dhabi Media Summit that the controversy surrounding shooting in 2D then digitally crafting the film into 3D would soon dissipate.
"I think this whole controversy will go away in three years, because studios will not be able to say 3D is tricky because tens of thousands of hours of TV will be broadcast live in 3D," he said.
Mr Cameron said 3D "adds value" to almost any kind of entertainment media, including sports, gaming, drama and natural history.
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"Avatar was designed to serve both masters, 3D and 2D, in the same way we've served the giant screen and the TV screen," he said. "We've always served the two masters of scale, now we're serving the two masters of depth.
"The value-add is the camera being able to simulate you being physically there."
For media broadcasters, the challenge is to ensure the hype around 3D film and video did not detract from the content of the media.
"With 3D, the challenge is to stay close to the heart," Mr Cameron said. "I write my own stories so I know what my characters are feeling at every moment of the story."
He wrote Avatar in 1994 but was told by producers the film was not technologically possible, so he knows the value of technological development.
"I wrote Avatar as a quantum leap forward in CG [computer graphics] character development, but the answer I got back was that it couldn't be done," Mr Cameron said.
"I wound up having to wait 10 years. There the technology came first, then the storytelling."