Audiences and Institutions: pick out key trends for your exam essay!
As the film business changes, IMAX is determined to stay in the
front row
WHEN Richard Gelfond, the boss of IMAX, goes to China, people
sometimes ask for his autograph. That is because for the Chinese, watching
films on a screen 20 metres high is still a novelty, and IMAX is the
best-known brand in giant-screen cinemas. No one in Hollywood has yet asked
for Mr Gelfond's autograph, but he is happier being a star abroad. China
is now the world's second-largest cinema market. Its box-office receipts
rose by 37% in 2014, to around $4.8 billion. Along with other emerging
economies, China will drive the film industry's growth in the years ahead.
IMAX's roots are in museums and science centres, where
audiences goggle at documentaries about sharks, dinosaurs and planets. Its
fortunes were boosted when, in 2009, its cinemas did 3D screenings of Avatar, a film about tree-hugging blue aliens. The film broke
worldwide box-office records and introduced IMAX to millions more
popcorn-chewers. Now, the company is in "the sweet spot of what is
working well globally in the box office", says James Marsh of Piper
Jaffray, an investment bank. The high-budget, high-octane blockbusters that
Hollywood spews out these days are ideally suited to IMAX screens; and more
than 55% of IMAX's 800 screens are outside America, mostly in
high-growth markets.
IMAX's margins are more than double those of cinema chains
such as AMC and Regal, because it does not bear the costs of owning theatres
or employing ushers. It makes its money by selling or licensing its screens
and other technology to cinema operators, and by taking a cut of their
box-office receipts. IMAX also makes money from studios by assuming the cost of
remastering films so they look slick on its giant screens, in exchange for a
slice of what the studios get from ticket sales. So, when films do well, IMAX
gets a piece of the action; when they bomb, its costs are limited.
Mr Gelfond may not get mobbed by film fans on Hollywood Boulevard,
but his number is in every studio boss's Rolodex. The studios want their
big-budget productions to be shown on the largest possible screens; and
negotiations to get them into IMAX cinemas can start a year or more in
advance, says Michael Burns of Lionsgate, a big studio. Sometimes producers
will delay a film's release until it can get a good slot. This has
happened with Mission Impossible 5, whose debut has been
postponed from December 2014 to July 2015.
Worldwide ticket sales are expected to hit a record this year, as
the latest instalments of such well-known film franchises as James Bond, Star
Wars and the Avengers light up the screens. But it has not been a smooth walk
down the red carpet. Last year America had its lowest cinema attendance in
two decades. With such sophisticated home-entertainment options on offer,
"people need a reason to leave their house," says Mr Gelfond.
Theatres are offering better food and plusher seats in return for higher
ticket prices. To fill seats in quiet periods they are also offering new
content, such as filmed operas, ballets and virtual museum tours. This month
IMAX has been screening episodes of HBO's Game of Thrones
television show.
As TV screens get bigger and sharper, and as streaming services
like Netflix expand, cinemas may get an ever-shorter period of exclusivity
before a film is made available for home viewing. So IMAX is hedging its
bets: it plans to sell smaller versions of its screens for the homes of rich
Chinese film buffs; and it is working on some sort of home-cinema technology
(it won't say what) for the American market. Its bet is that some people
will always be willing to pay more for a bigger picture.
Source Citation
(MLA 7th Edition)
"Just the ticket; Cinemas." The Economist 7 Feb. 2015: 61(US). Student Edition. Web. 24 Feb. 2015.
No comments:
Post a Comment