IMAX Expands in Russia
Rising Star Media Adds More Digital IMAX(R) Theatre Systems
Source: money.cnn.com
February 3, 2010 - IMAX Corporation and Rising Star Media, one of Russia’s leading international exhibitors, today announced an agreement to expand their relationship by installing two more digital IMAX® theatre systems by spring 2010.
The deal follows a highly successful run of IMAX titles at the exhibitor’s two existing IMAX locations. Under terms of the deal, Rising Star will add a new digital IMAX location in Moscow, and upgrade its existing film-based IMAX location in St. Petersburg with an IMAX digital projection system.
During the current run of Avatar in Russia, IMAX theatres generated 5% of the film’s total Russian box office on 0.3% of the screens. The two Kinostar IMAX screens, which are operated by Rising Star Media, have both passed the $1 million box office mark.
On other recent 3D releases, including Sony Animation’s Cloudy with A Chance of Meatballs and Disney’s A Christmas Carol, Kinostar enjoyed similar market leading box office success.
January 14, 2010 - “Avatar” broke Russia’s box office record, overtaking the domestic comedy “Irony of Fate 2” less than a month after the release of James Cameron’s futuristic 3-D adventure, Booker’s Bulletin said Wednesday. “Avatar” grossed more than $70 million from Dec. 16, when it opened in Moscow, to Jan. 10, the industry research group said. The movie has played on a record 1,330 screens in the former Soviet Union, excluding Ukraine and the Baltic states, according to Russian Film Business Today magazine.
The film showed on 353 screens in 3-D, including IMAX, which yielded just over half of its opening gross, the magazine reported. “Avatar is unique because people think of it as a 3-D amusement ride not a movie so the popularity is unprecedented,” Boris Babushkin, editor of Booker’s Bulletin magazine, said by phone from Yekaterinburg.
News Corp.’s Twentieth Century Fox and partners Dune Entertainment and Ingenious Film Partners have spent more than $380 million to make and market “Avatar,” which was shot using a dual-camera 3-D system that Cameron invented with partner Vince Pace. “Avatar” has taken in more than $1.3 billion worldwide, second only to “Titanic,” which grossed $1.84 billion, according to Hollywood.com.
RUSSIA