Despite the fact that IMAX is a forty year old company, they have been but a minor player on the film exhibition market. The Toronto based company operates only 160 screens in North America, many of those being in institutional venues considered inadequate to meet the needs of commercial releases. They were only able to come up with 94 screens on which to premiere The Dark Knight. However, it is the success of The Dark Knight on those 94 screens that promises to change IMAX forever.
It would be an understatement to say that the IMAX release of The Dark Knight was a success. Of the record breaking $158.4M the film brought in on opening weekend, $6.2M of it came from IMAX screens - just 94 screens. That’s an astounding $67,000 per venue average. Every single showing of The Dark Knight on an IMAX screen on Saturday was sold out. Needless to say, it was a record breaking weekend for IMAX and Hollywood, the exhibition industry, and filmgoers have all taken notice.
The IMAX company has every intention of taking advantage of the spotlight they are now in. With more filmgoers aware of the benefits of IMAX now than ever before their main focus is now to expand their total number of screens. Executives at IMAX hope to supplement its current inventory of screens with at least 200 new screens within two years and expect to have about 40 new domestic screens and 10 overseas installations up and running by year’s end.
“Within a two-year period, we’re going to go from 160 worldwide to at least 360,” Foster said. “And my guess is it’s going to be more. My phones are ringing today like you can’t imagine.”
One of the things that is helping them expand so quickly is their push into digital projection. Exhibitor costs for a regular IMAX projection system can run $1 million plus. The push into digital, however, has helped IMAX lower the cost on equipment for prospective partnerships to about $150,000. There’s a huge difference between those two figures that will make a big difference when IMAX is trying to get exhibitors lined up.
The push into digital will also help IMAX participate more aggressively in the spreading 3-D mania. Journey to the Center of the Earth which was released a couple of weekends ago did phenomenal business…on 3D screens. Thanks to the boost it’s getting from 3D screens the film has also had one of the best “holds” over the past weekend and is proving that digital 3-D systems from RealD are here to stay. With IMAX moving into digital it’ll be poised to take advantage of all the 3D movies that will be coming down the stretch as well.
What all of this means for filmgoers is that by the time Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince hits theaters in November (complete with 3D scenes filmed for IMAX), IMAX should be able to premiere the film on 130 screens or more which means they will undoubtedly break their own record for an IMAX premiere set by The Dark Knight this past weekend. It also means even more people will have the opportunity to see a film on the huge IMAX screen, and, if IMAX gets their way, become converts who continue to return to see other films on the IMAX screens.
Here is a graphical representation of how an IMAX 3D film works. Click it to make it larger.
Check out this site for some interesting info on IMAX that will tell you more about it and how it works.
IMAX is cool but…. nobody ever talks about OmniMAX. its a 180 degree dome, you sit at a 45 degree and are surrounded entirely by the screen viewon all sides of you. Its at the San Diego Space Museum and its AWESOME!!!
I'm here in San Diego, I'll go check it out…screw the Lost live blog!
You should, Rueben H Fleet space museum….its in Balboa park right next to the zoo… I looked for you on G4 TV's 3 hour coverage of Comic-con I didnt see ya there…
Instead of Where's Waldo? it's Where's MO?
Please, Cap'n. The public can only get used to one MAX at a time. They made the obvious choice and went with the I instead of the longer and harder to write OMNI. Clearly IMAX was the better choice.
Nice article Jason…cool images.
But someone told me that IMAX 3D can be done WITHOUT glasses these days…which would make 3D much more appealing to me.
I dunno… the public has had max for a while… MAX-imum strength asprin, give me the MAX-imum allowable dosage a human can take beofre it kills me…. in the 80's we survived 'to the MAX'…… Omni just seems right around the corner =)
It cant. They are like Kodak glasses like at the Disneyland ride. There is a flashing indicator on the screen that 3d is going to happen and you put on the glasses instead of watch a 2 hour movie with them on…
Yeah, this is what I've head too. I don't think we're quite to the 3D movie without glasses yet unless you count the films at the planetarium (which are actually pretty cool these days).
I live in Woodbridge, VA, which is 30 minutes south of Washington D.C. and the AMC @ Potomac Mills has the new digital 2K IMAX 2D & 3D projection system in auditorium #9.
I was impressed with IMAX digital 3D, wearing he IMAX 3D polarized glasses watching “Space 3D” and the 2D movie “Kung Fu Panda” in cropped to 2.40:1 wide IMAX digital. Both were very impressive as was the sound, which you could actually feel as it rushes past you.
2K is not supposed to be as good as 4K projection, as 4K is four times sharper, resolution wise, but the digital IMAX 2K looked awesome….
I also saw Real D's “Journey to the Center of the Earth” in 2K 3D at the same AMC theatre. It was on a 1.85:1 screen which didn't quite touch the walls and definately not the floors and ceiling like the IMAX digital projection screen does which has the aspect ratio of 1.9:1. Real D digital 2K was also awesome–so IMAX is going to have very stiff competition with their new Digital IMAX system.
But, all-in-all, I think from what I've seen of digital presentations, digital cinema will soon be replacing film. That makes me sad as I love film and am fascinated with photography and cinematography, and as an archival medium, film will probably always be around, so what-me-worry, it's not such a big deal after all….
By the way–I want to see a digital presentation in IMAX of “Gone With The Wind” for the 2009 70th anniversary of the film. It's original 3-strip camera negatives are preserved in 4K resolution, so a digital IMAX presentation would be very apt indeed.
Grant Vuille