July 22, 2008 – 11:41 am |
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The Hollywood Reporter examines the impact of The Dark Knight’s success, and what it means for IMAX’s future and potential mainstream popularity. Though IMAX has attempted to come into the populace’s consciousness with their many DMR releases (from The Matrix to Beowulf), the company has yet to see the inflated triple digit commercial success of Hollywood films.
So why might success with “Dark Knight” finally push Imax into the exhibition mainstream? Two big reasons, potentially:
– The $158.4 million opening for the latest Batman sequel featured $6.2 million from just 94 Imax screens, or a mind-numbing $67,000 per venue.
– The unprecedented giant-screen grosses come just as the company is making a big push into digital exhibition.
That latter point is particularly important.
The digital push is lowering exhibitors’ costs on Imax equipment for prospective partnerships — from $1 million-plus per installation to about $150,000. So combined with favorable publicity from its “Dark Knight” success, Imax hopes to have a much larger installed base of giant screens soon.
It also will help Imax participate more aggressively in the spreading 3-D mania.
Read the full article by following the link:
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UPDATE: The Film Phantom Blog takes a look at some of the problems IMAX faces in reaching the mainstream:
The problem that IMAX has had is two-fold. 1) There aren’t that many IMAX theatres around the country, and certainly nowhere near the number of normal projection cinemas. Tickets to an IMAX event are more costly as well, but its not a significant difference that would affect it as much as the lack of screens would.
. . .
2) Hollywood films are not filmed in IMAX and thus don’t take real advantage of the benefits visually or audibly. There hasn’t been a live action Hollywood release shot entirely in IMAX and so far only a few films like Journey to the Center of the Earth and Beowulf have made use of the 3D offerings in IMAX with any kind of success, and that has been moderate. So even when a big time film gets released in IMAX there isn’t much of a differentiation between it and the one shown down at the local AMC. Until now.
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UPDATE: Aspect Ratio Blog give a detailed look at IMAX’s history and Hollywood’s tepid acceptance of the format, perhaps up until TDK:
[I]t would appear that Hollywood has had a very limited relationship with IMAX. Each of the innovations mentioned thus far have been half-hearted attempts by studios and filmmakers to exploit the IMAX format. Hollywood is known for its conservative feelings towards innovative image and sound technology. A “wait and see” approach has dominated the industry since the very beginning, which is partly why it took nearly seven decades for wide film processes such as Panavision to become an industry norm and not a novelty. In many ways, technical standardization is the result of a perfect storm of happenings: audience demand, economic security, and a film (or set of films) to ignite public interest.
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Workers using a towering crane carefully lifted a large sign into place on the outside of the new IMAX theater in Reading’s Entertainment Square this morning. Later today, the nearly 3,000 square-foot screen will be raised into position. The new Reading Movies 11 IMAX Theatre at 2nd and Washington streets is set to open to the public on August 8.
