Posts
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/movies/news/article.cfm?c_id=200&objectid=10554611
4:00AM Monday Feb 02, 2009
The chief executive of megascreen producer Imax said he was confident the movie business would remain fairly recession-proof and that his company would benefit this year from the release of the new Star Trek film and the latest Harry Potter epic.
Richard Gelfond said the Canadian company planned to release as many as 10 films in Imax theatres this year - up from seven last year.
They include the big-screen adaptation of Alan Moore's acclaimed graphic novel The Watchmen, a tale about ex-superheroes in an alternative America; Avatar, James Cameron's first feature film since the Oscar-winning Titanic; and Lost creator J.J. Abrams' much anticipated reboot of the legendary Star Trek franchise, focusing on the exploits of Captain James T. Kirk and Mr Spock.
"It's an unbelievable year for us," Gelfond said on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum.
Gelfond didn't see the crisis eating into profits, which he said were still benefiting from Imax's shift five years ago from film to a digital medium, cutting costs significantly.
It still costs between US$1 million ($1.9 million) and US$1.5 million to convert a 35mm film into Imax format, but Gelfond said good films easily recovered that.
The Imax version of The Dark Knight, the format's most successful film, raked in about US$60 million last year on only 1 per cent of screens it played on, he said. Imax takes in about 12.5 per cent profit from its screenings.
"The movie industry is generally fairly recession-proof," Gelfond said.
"People see the movies as a simple pleasure. You may not be able to go on vacation. You may not be able to eat in a four-star restaurant. But you can go to the movies and get relatively inexpensive escapism."
An Imax screen is like high-definition for a movie theatre. They can be anywhere from 12m high such as on 42nd street in New York - which Gelfond said was the highest grossing theatre in America - to eight-storey tall screens in London, Sydney and elsewhere in New York.
As many as 700 people can fit in a single cinema, making margins bigger than for normal movie halls. "It's a premium experience at a premium price," he said. "But it's a simple premium. It's only about US$3 more."
Of course, for films like last year's Speed Racer, which Gelfond said flopped in Imax as it did on normal screens, profits may prove elusive.
But he said the demand for theatres and Imax showings was growing.
There are about 175 commercial Imax theatres in the world, Gelfond said, including one in Auckland. A backlog of 250 exists - 150 in the United States and 100 abroad - which the company hopes to build by late 2010 or early 2011.
He identified China and Russia as growth markets, and said contracts were generally being honoured.
- AP
No comments:
Post a Comment
Please comment as you wish.