It had been too many months since I sat in a movie theater. My local multiplex closed down and there hadn’t been a flick that lured me to spend the required time and distance to partake in one of my favorite hobbies, moviegoing. But my nearly teenage (gulp) daughter loves Billie Eilish. So we, along with her friend, made the long and arduous journey to see Billie Eilish – Hit Me Hard and Soft: The Tour (Live in 3D).

Despite the unwieldiness of the title, it tells you in twelve words, an em dash, and two parentheses exactly what you’re going to see over the next two hours. In glorious three dimensions you see the pop superstar perform the Manchester UK concert off her last tour.

Interspersed among the concert footage, you see co-director James Cameron, interview his co-director Eilish.  He doesn’t ask her any hard hitting questions. It only shows Billie in the most favorable light. But this movie isn’t for those looking for insight on the human condition, rather it is meant for Billie Eilish super-fans to delight in the presence of their favorite performer.

On that front the movie delivers. My daughter and others in the audience were singing along with every memorized lyric. They waved their arms just as the hologram fans at the actual concert were doing on the screen. As I tried to sit back in the malfunctioning reclining seat of the once state of the art Dolby theater, I wondered if these kind of movies are what will save movie theaters.

It costs hundreds of dollars to see Billie Eilish in a live venue.

Plus you have to have access to a major metropolitan area that would have a venue that could host her. For anywhere between eleven and twenty-five dollars fans can simulate the communal experience of going to see their favorite singer outside their home. Depending how this movie does along with the success of the current Michael biopic, I wonder if concert movies will be the new comic book movie. The big attraction that draws a large subset of people away from their small screens to the big screen.

I doubt most future 3-D concert movies will look as good as this one as they won’t have the benefit of James Cameron directing them. Cameron pretty much revolutionized the modern 3-D movie with his Avatar franchise, and surprisingly is seen holding the 3-D cameras throughout this flick as someone else films him filming Billie Eilish.

A lot of the movie’s 3-D effects are spectacular from the opening song where Eilish seems to be running right in front of you to when the confetti pops out of the streamers during the finale. What is most jarring is seeing the three dimensional cell phones held by fans at the concert, meaning you’re watching someone filming many, many others filming a concert. The question now is whether 3-D is enough of a draw to get superfans to leave the ease and comfort of YouTube concert footage.