Imax’s tall order: big fun, with few ads

When a new movie comes out, Christeen Field doesn’t run to the nearest multiplex. “I wait for a cool movie, and then I take the kids to the Imax,” Field said as she left one of the first Imax showings of “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” at the Bridge Cinema. Field’s 12-year-old daughter, Allison, shares her mom’s tastes. “On smaller screens, it just feels like you’re looking at it,” Allison said. “But on Imax, it feels like you are there.”

Audiences have complained long and loud that moviegoing isn’t as much fun as it used to be, resulting in sharply lower admissions in 2005 compared with the last two years. While the grievances focus largely on low-rent plots and sky-high prices, another constant criticism holds that theaters aren’t that special anymore. Thanks to plasma TVs and teeth-rattling stereos, some home theater systems can now approach a theater’s presentation, all without the barrage of pre-show ads and $5 sodas.

The drinks aren’t a penny cheaper at Imax venues, and the tickets are even more expensive, but that hasn’t kept the giant-size screens from attracting an increasing stream of patrons. While other exhibitors are struggling to fill seats, Imax is having a banner year, and the first-weekend returns of “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” clearly will sustain that momentum.

Playing on 65 Imax screens in its opening weekend, director Tim Burton’s remake grossed an estimated $2.2 million with a per-screen average of $33,569, Warner Bros. said Sunday. (The film also was No. 1 in regular theaters, with an estimated total domestic gross of $55.4 million in its debut weekend.) The “Charlie” numbers represented the best three-day weekend yet for any Imax version of a studio feature, breaking the three-day mark of $2.1 million set last year by “The Polar Express.” Warner Bros. also said “Charlie” set single-day Imax records for Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

Filmmakers, studio executives and Imax officials believe the large-format theaters are doing well by offering exactly what movies promise but don’t always deliver: a unique, out-of-the-home experience.

“To me, Imax is the closest you can get to being that little kid again, watching a movie with that larger-than-life scale,” said Chris Nolan, the director and co-writer of “Batman Begins,” which has been a popular Imax release. “It can’t be reproduced anywhere else. And that’s what movies need to be. Otherwise, you are making TV shows.”

Added Dan Fellman, president of domestic distribution for Warner Bros. “You have to try to think outside of the box in this business.... Everything seems to be the same old, same old.”

Imax, which once focused almost exclusively on science-museum documentaries, is planning to release as many as seven new Hollywood movies annually, up from four this year (Imax enlarges the films from the standard 35-millimeter format at a cost of about $5 million a movie, including the costs of making new film prints).

It’s easy to understand the push for more titles. In addition to growing box office grosses, Imax sales for both “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” and “Batman Begins” accounted for a much larger percentage of those films’ total opening gross than did the Imax version of “Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban.”

Imax’s biggest success with a Hollywood movie has been its 3-D “The Polar Express,” which has grossed more than $45 million on Imax screens worldwide, and about $35 million domestically. The 3-D “Polar Express” is set to be re-released on Imax screens in November.

Other studios are taking note. On Friday, Sony Pictures announced that in addition to regular theaters, it would release its summer 2006 feature “Monster House” on about 100 screens equipped to show the family film in Real D, a new 3-D system. Disney will use the same process on an equal number of screens with its November computer-animated release, “Chicken Little.”

“Monster House” is a computer-animated movie made with the same process used to make “Polar Express.” Although the film is not scheduled to be shown on Imax’s eight-story-high screens, Sony believes the Real D process can make “Monster House” stand out from home theaters and other multiplex screens.

“Certainly, the performance of ‘Polar Express’ in 3-D caught everyone’s eye. It definitely was added value,” said Rory Bruer, Sony’s president of domestic distribution. To watch “Monster House” in Real D, Bruer said, “is a pure win for consumers. They will get a more immersive theater experience.”

Bruer believes Real D has a number of advantages over Imax, including a larger theater base (Real D can be used in multiplex theaters equipped with digital projectors).

Unlike most multiplex operators, Imax encourages the theaters showing its films not to litter the pre-show with commercials. It even recommends raising ticket prices (which run about $3 more than standard theaters) rather than run ads.

One commercial you will see at Imax theaters is a trailer for coming Imax attractions, as Imax tries to capitalize on its mounting success. “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” was promoted in a trailer before showings of “Batman Begins,” and a spot for the Imax version of November’s “Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire” is now running before “Charlie.”

“There’s clearly a trend that home entertainment and advertising clutter are contributing to a theatrical experience that is not sufficiently unique,” said Greg Foster, chairman and president of Imax Filmed Entertainment. “Ads are simply not a part of the Imax culture.”

Imax also benefits by cherry-picking the most likely commercial hits; with new movies being added only every two months or so, it doesn’t have to book “XXX: State of the Union” or “Rebound.”

One of Imax’s 2006 releases will be a 3-D version of “Ant Bully,” a computer-animated adaptation of John Nickle’s children’s book, for Warner Bros.

“The whole story about the motion picture business being down and Imax being up -- it’s all true,” said Gary Goetzman, a producer of both “Ant Bully” and “Polar Express.” “We think Imax fits in with our plan.”

Imax also fits into the moviegoing plans of Scott Nisson, who was heading into the Bridge’s Imax screen to see “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.”

“Whenever there’s a good movie on the Imax,” Nisson said, “we prefer to see it [there] rather than the regular screen.”