Everest Press Release
Wednesday May 20, 8:01 am Eastern Time
Company Press Release
EVEREST Reaches New Heights 45 Years After First Successful Ascent
MacGillivray Freeman's Giant-Screen Release Is Breaking Box Office Records at IMAX Theaters Worldwide
LAGUNA BEACH, Calif.--(ENTERTAINMENT WIRE)--May 20, 1998-- Forty-five years after the first successful expedition to the top of Mount Everest on
May 29, 1953, EVEREST, the 70mm giant-screen release from MacGillivray Freeman Films, has become the fastest grossing large-format film ever with $12.9
million after 11 weeks of release in only 37 IMAX theaters in the U.S. and Canada.
Worldwide, the film has grossed over $16.6 million on a total of 58 screen.
Since its release on March 6, EVEREST has been among the top 20 grossing films in North America every week, and is currently number 14 on Variety's Box
Office Chart. The film is scheduled for release in over 115 theaters worldwide over the next year. Distributed by MacGillivray Freeman Films Distribution
Company, the 44-minute film was produced for exhibition at the more than 164 IMAX and other large-format theaters.
EVEREST has galvanized the large-format industry with its record-breaking box office and attendance records. Large-format theaters worldwide have reported
dramatically increased attendance numbers, in some cases by over 40%. New York City's SONY IMAX Theatre reported gross revenues of over $1 million after
only six weeks of exhibiting the film. This is the highest grossing initial release of any large-format film at the theater.
Premiering on only 10 screens nationwide during its opening weekend, EVEREST registered attendance of over 90% capacity across all shows at all venues. On
April 6, while playing in only 25 theaters, its per-screen average of $50,396 was almost 10 times that of TITANIC ($5,822). To date, EVEREST maintains the
highest per screen average on the chart.
Imax Corporation is also seeing benefits from EVEREST's record performance. According to Richard L. Gelfond, Vice Chairman and Co-CEO of Imax,
''(EVEREST) is bringing more people to IMAX theaters for the first time than ever before and is generating record box office results at theaters around the
world.... We look forward to this trend accelerating as the film continues its rollout to more than 100 theatres in the next year.''
Imax Corporation recently presented EVEREST Director/Producer, Greg MacGillivray, the first ''IMAX Award'' celebrating excellence and outstanding
achievement in large-format filmmaking. Founded in 1967, Imax Corporation [Nasdaq:IMAXF - news] is the pioneer of giant-screen large-format film and
technology.
EVEREST features the first large-format images ever brought back from Mount Everest. It tells the dramatic true story of the EVEREST film expedition's journey to
the summit, just days after the infamous 1996 tragedy in which eight climbers lost their lives in a deadly storm.
EVEREST is produced and distributed by MacGillivray Freeman Films, who also produced the Academy Award(R)-nominated large-format film THE LIVING
SEA, and TO FLY!, the highest-grossing documentary of all-time. EVEREST is their nineteenth large-format film.
Note to Editors: IMAX is a registered trademark of Imax Corporation. Major funding provided by the National Science Foundation. |
