Imax an option for more movies
When a new movie comes out, Christeen Field doesn’t run to the nearest multiplex.
“I wait for a cool movie, and then I take the kids to the Imax,” Field said as she left one of the first Imax showings of “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” at the Bridge Cinema on the west side of Los Angeles.
Field’s 12-year-old daughter, Allison, shares her mom’s tastes.
“On smaller screens, it just feels like you’re looking at it,” Allison said. “But on Imax, it feels like you are there.”
Audiences have complained long and loud that moviegoing isn’t as much fun as it used to be, resulting in sharply lower admissions in 2005 compared with the past two years.
While the grievances focus largely on low-rent plots and sky-high prices, another constant criticism holds that theaters aren’t that special anymore. Thanks to plasma TVs and teeth-rattling stereos, some home theater systems can now approach a theater’s presentation, all without the barrage of pre-show ads and $5 sodas.
The drinks aren’t a penny cheaper at Imax venues, and the tickets are even more expensive, but that hasn’t kept the giant-size screens from attracting an increasing stream of patrons.
While other exhibitors are struggling to fill seats, Imax is having a banner year, and the first-weekend returns of “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” clearly will sustain that momentum.
Playing on 65 Imax screens last weekend (including the one in Spokane’s Riverfront Park), director Tim Burton’s remake grossed an estimated $2.2 million. (It also was No. 1 in regular theaters, with a domestic gross of $56.2 million in its debut weekend.)
The “Charlie” numbers represented the best three-day weekend yet for any Imax version of a studio feature, breaking the three-day mark of $2.1 million set last year by “The Polar Express.” “Charlie” also set single-day Imax records for each day.
Filmmakers, studio executives and Imax officials believe the large-format theaters are doing well by offering exactly what movies promise but don’t always deliver: a unique, out-of-the-home experience.
“To me, Imax is the closest you can get to being that little kid again, watching a movie with that larger-than-life scale,” said Chris Nolan, the director and co-writer of “Batman Begins,” which has been a popular Imax release.
“It can’t be reproduced anywhere else,” Nolan says. “And that’s what movies need to be. Otherwise, you are making TV shows.”
Imax, which once focused almost exclusively on science-museum documentaries, is planning to release as many as seven new Hollywood movies annually, up from four this year. (Imax enlarges the films from the standard 35-millimeter format at a cost of about $5 million a movie, including the costs of making new film prints.)
It’s easy to understand the push for more titles. In addition to growing box office grosses, Imax sales for “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” and “Batman Begins” accounted for a much larger percentage of those films’ total opening gross than did the Imax version of “Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban.”
Imax benefits by cherry-picking the most likely commercial hits; with new movies being added only every two months or so, it doesn’t have to book “XXX: State of the Union” or “Rebound.”
One of its 2006 releases will be a 3-D version of “Ant Bully,” a computer-animated adaptation of John Nickle’s children’s book, for Warner Bros.
Imax’s biggest success with a Hollywood movie so far has been its 3-D “The Polar Express,” which has grossed more than $45 million on Imax screens worldwide and about $35 million domestically. It’s set to be re-released on Imax screens in November.
Other studios are taking note. Last week, Sony Pictures announced that in addition to regular theaters, it would release its summer 2006 feature “Monster House” on about 100 screens equipped to show the family film in Real D, a new 3-D system.
Disney will use the same process on an equal number of screens with its November computer-animated release, “Chicken Little.”
“Monster House” is a computer-animated movie made with the same process used to make “Polar Express.” Although the film is not scheduled to be shown on Imax’s eight-story-high screens, Sony believes the Real D process can make “Monster House” stand out from home theaters and other multiplex screens.
“Certainly, the performance of ‘Polar Express’ in 3-D caught everyone’s eye. It definitely was added value,” said Rory Bruer, Sony’s president of domestic distribution. Bruer believes Real D has several advantages over Imax, including a larger theater base (Real D can be used in multiplex theaters equipped with digital projectors).
Unlike most multiplex operators, Imax encourages the theaters showing its films not to litter the pre-show with commercials. It even recommends raising ticket prices (which run about $3 more than standard theaters) rather than run ads.
“Ads are simply not a part of the Imax culture,” said Greg Foster, chairman and president of Imax Filmed Entertainment.
One commercial you will see at Imax theaters is a trailer for coming Imax attractions, as Imax tries to capitalize on its mounting success.
“Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” was promoted in a trailer before showings of “Batman Begins,” and a spot for the Imax version of November’s “Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire” is now running before “Charlie.”