Nice bit of PR courtesy of CNN
Bigger is better
IMAX knocking
competition down to
size
Web posted on:
Friday, November 06, 1998 4:19:29 PM EST
From Correspondent Dennis
Michael
HOLLYWOOD (CNN) -- It's the buzz of the movie industry. IMAX
film technology is not only impressive in size -- it's impressive in
box office numbers.
The IMAX production "Everest" is a high point for the
special-venue moviemaker, a hit that may change everything for
the company. "Everest," a documentary of a deadly climb to the
world's highest peak, spent several weeks at number one on the
exclusive exhibition charts, and is still in the top 20 in the overall
box office stats.
By IMAX standards, it's an unqualified
blockbuster. Producer Greg
MacGillivray spent $2 million to
promote the special event film the
way the big studios do, and saw
increases in the box from 20 to 45 percent at every theater.
"What this proved to us is that there is a vast audience out there
that actually wants this experience on the giant screen,"
MacGillivray says. "They just haven't been hearing about it in the
past."
Big times for big movies
These are big times for a company that has made bigness a way
of life. The IMAX film frame is 10 times bigger than the ordinary
movie. It's projected on a screen that is nine stories tall, from a
projector that's the size of a compact car. The result is a startlingly
clear, stable and -- let's face it -- big image.
"You feel like you're in the space with the characters that are
playing in the film," says Brett Leonard, director of "T-Rex: Back to
the Cretaceous," which was made in cutting-edge IMAX 3D.
There are now nearly 180 IMAX
theatres around the world,
including several in the 3D format,
a niche that is growing in
popularity among IMAX
aficionados. Along with Leonard's
"T-Rex," Jean-Jacques Annaud
directed "Wings of Courage" in
IMAX 3D. And the Rolling Stones
have been made even larger than
life by IMAX, though not the 3D
format, in "The Rolling Stones:
Live At the Max."
But the biggest star on the biggest screen is IMAX itself.
"IMAX is also a brand, so we don't have to pay the same kind of
talent that Hollywood has to pay, which is really a huge percentage
of the costs," says Rich Gelfond, president of IMAX. "Once you
take those costs down and you look at just making the film with the
world around you as the talent, you get into much more
manageable budget ranges. A typical two-dimensional film at
IMAX is about $5 million; a typical 3D film at IMAX is about $10
million."
With that kind of budget, there's plenty of room for IMAX to grow.
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