Imax expands north
Exhib inks with Famous Players for 10 sites
The first locations will include the 14-screen Paramount Theatre in downtown Toronto, where the companies are embarking on a previously announced joint venture, and the 18-screen Colossus in Vaughan, Ontario.
There are currently 16 Imax sites in Canada. The addition of the 10 planned theaters will raise the concentration to about one Imax theater per million people. That compares with one for every 3 million people in the U.S.
"What we've accomplished in Canada shows potential for growth in rest of the world," said Richard Gelfond, Imax vice chairman and co-CEO.
Famous Players is in the midst of the largest expansion in the company's 77-year history, according to president John Bailey: "The incredible success of our state-of-the-art, stadium-seating theaters is evidence that audiences want to experience today's motion pictures as they are meant to be seen: larger than life on a big screen with big sound."
The majority of the theaters under the deal are expected to utilize Imax's 3-D SR system, a smaller unit designed primarily for installation in multiplexes. But some of the higher-traffic locations may use the larger Imax 3-D system.
Imax has now contracted with 12 commercial exhibitors worldwide, including Cinemark USA, Cineplex Odeon, Edwards, Empire, Krikorian Premiere, Regal, Sony and Marcus.
The deal represents another step in a budding relationship with Viacom, said Gelfond. Imax is now at work on a 3-D "Star Trek" film with Viacom subsid Paramount Pictures.
"Working closer with the studios is something we hope to do long-term," said Gelfond. "It will give us the ability to leverage off existing film products and to joint-venture on creative properties."
Imax has recently developed 3-D animation technology, which has so far yielded the short film "Paint Misbehaving."
Eventually, Gelfond said he envisions multiplatform releases of full-length studio features, where a picture would go out in both 35mm and Imax 3-D formats.
