‘Everest’ Lifts Imax to Dramatic New Peaks

Taking in $2.4 million at the box office isn’t usually considered impressive for a film after 2 1/2 weeks in release. Big hits routinely earn five times that in a single opening weekend.

But playing on only 19 screens, the Imax-format, “Everest” has already broken records for a giant-screen picture. Playing to sold-out houses in cities including New York, Denver and Irvine (the film will make it to Los Angeles this fall), the film’s per-screen average of $63,134 has been astounding--even factoring in the large size of Imax theaters.

The film follows a 1996 expedition that occurred at the same time that eight climbers in another party lost their lives in a storm--a tragedy later written about in the bestseller “Into Thin Air” by Jon Krakauer.

The film’s success--combined with its dramatic, real-life story and millions of dollars in marketing support--make it the Great White Hope of the large-screen format, dominated by Toronto-based Imax Corp. Imax has launched an aggressive campaign to move into mainstream entertainment, away from museum settings and standard nature documentaries.

“ ‘Everest’s’ success is due to its uniqueness,” said the film’s producer-director, Greg MacGillivray. “ ‘Everest’ is a new style. . . . In the past, [large-format movies] have been nature documentaries, film about animals or plants. This is a character-driven, emotional story.”

MacGillivray worked for months to achieve the right balance of drama and inspiration.

“One of the very first cuts of the film had very little of the tragedy in it. Then, Jon Krakauer’s book came out, and all of a sudden, the context our film was coming out in was much different.

“Ten million people have read that book, so we had to address the issue. And I think it strengthened the film.”

The 44-minute picture was produced using Imax photography for about $6 million; as is typical with a large-format film, funding came from a number of sources, including the National Science Foundation and several museums whose theaters will show the film. “Everest” was produced by MacGillivray’s Laguna Beach-based MacGillivray Freeman Films, the largest independent (outside of Imax) producer of Imax-format pictures.

The main character in the film is Jamling Norgay. He climbs the world’s highest mountain as a tribute to his father, who made the first ascent of Everest in 1953 with Edmund Hillary. The father-son bond forms an emotional backdrop for the film.

“Because it’s an emotional motivation and very personal to this one man, and not the ego thing of climbing the mountain for oneself, the audience forms an affection for them,” MacGillivray said.

Imax co-chief executive Bradley J. Weschler says his company is watching “Everest” closely.

“It’s almost like a test case for a new way to market and promote an Imax movie,” Weschler said. “We’re really just coming of age in terms of the commercial aspect of Imax; the company grew up in institutional settings.”

Of particular interest to Weschler is the fact that Malden Mills, makers of the cold-weather fabric Polartec, is putting up $5 million of “Everest’s” $7-million marketing budget (the film’s producers are putting up the rest). Malden and Polartec get an on-screen plug at the front of the film and are linking their entire $17-million advertising and marketing budget throughout the year to the movie through things like using people in the movie for ads and personal appearances. To date, television and radio spots for Imax pictures have been virtually unheard of.

Imax produces or distributes an average of three pictures per year and plans to look for promotional partners on future films. (There are 90 Imax theaters in the United States.) Marketing will become increasingly important as Imax moves into 3-D animated family pictures such as “T. Rex” this fall.

This is Polartec’s first movie tie-in, according to Jeff Bowman, merchandising manager for Malden Mills. Polartec had a history with David Breashears, “Everest’s” expedition leader-director- co-producer-cinematographer. The company had given small sponsorship grants to Breashears for earlier adventure treks.

When Breashears first approached Malden about the movie in early 1996, though, the company had to decline sponsorship; the factory had burned down in December 1995. (Malden chief executive Aaron Feuerstein’s commitment to continue paying his workers while the factory was rebuilt garnered national attention.)

When Breashears returned to Malden last year for funding, the company had another concern: the movie’s tone. Given the tragedy that occurred during filming, the company wanted to make sure the movie didn’t come off as exploitative.

“We asked to see the movie right off the bat,” Bowman admits. “We saw that the movie isn’t about death and dying; it’s about triumph and courage. . . . We want to promote people going into the outdoors responsibly.”

Though MacGillivray touts the film as the first large-screen film with “fully developed character lines and emotions,” he admits the picture still doesn’t have the polish of a big-budget studio film. Reviews of “Everest” have been generally good: “visually glorious and absorbing,” said the New York Times. Newsday’s reviewer, though, said that “for the most part, you have to supply your own emotion” since most dialogue is in the form of Liam Neeson’s rather straightforward narration.

Marketing experts expect to see more promotional deals involving Imax, but MacGillivray says he’s not sure other producers will be willing to put up as much of their own marketing money.

“They may not risk the money. But we are building a market for our films,” MacGillivray said.

“We are trying to prove that Imax-style films can be marketed, produced with same feature quality results in terms of box-office returns. There is a vast market that traditional Imax films have not been capturing.”

Times staff writer Brett Johnson contributed to this story.