Avatar Redux to get summer release? | Print | E-mail
Written by Chris Forrester
Sunday, 14 March 2010 10:45
Hollywood has suddenly twigged that if you are sitting on a cinematic goldmine then it’s wise to keep the mine open. A reversioned Avatar, with extra footage added, is being contemplated for summer release.
IMAX CEO Richard Gelfond on March 11 told an investor conference that Avatar director James Cameron had about 40 minutes of highly useable footage which ended up on the cutting room floor because of time pressures, both in terms of the original movie’s length but also because of the tight Dec 18 release date. More time + massive audience enthusiasm = easy money.
And it is Avatar’s IMAX release that’s the focus of the extra effort. IMAX theatres can handle movies up to 170 minutes. Avatar was 160 minutes in length suggesting that the ‘best 10’ minutes of discarded footage could be added for IMAX release, with the remaining material added to the DVD release as extra scenes.
There’s another factor in the somewhat complex equation, and it concerns Alice in Wonderland. In many respects ‘Alice’ came too soon. The week before Alice’s release Avatar was still playing quite happily in 4200 American cinemas, including 179 IMAX sites. Alice’s release meant an immediate drop in Avatar’s exposure to just 667 screens, and only 8 IMAX locations – and a 41% drop in revenues (says Hollywood Reporter).
Cameron, speaking last week in New York, said his film had probably “left a couple hundred million dollars on the table as a result”.
Julian Standford is IMAX Corp’s GM/Theatre Development for the EMEA region, and he says the US experience is replicated across Europe, including central and eastern Europe.
Talking exclusively to Rapid TV News he says that IMAX has a relationship in eastern Europe with Cinema City, an Israeli company. “They have been quietly building an extremely large cinema circuit in Europe. They now have about 700 screens and have proven to be excellent partners for us. We have 9 IMAX sites with them. It is all down to the fact, and this is something they realised a while ago, that putting an IMAX into a cinema complex is like putting a strong department store or an IKEA into a shopping mall. It gives you a strong anchor tenant that people love. Just before Christmas they put one into Bucharest, in Romania, at a 20+ screen complex, and it looks fantastic and is shaped like a giant golfball, and has been doing fabulous business. What Cinema City has been able to do is to roll out the IMAX concept into their premiere sites in Warsaw, Bucharest, Prague and Budapest, and this has been a tremendous move for them, and us.”
Imax releases
Avatar Current
Alice in Wonderland Current
Hubble March 2010
Prince of Persia “Sands/Time” May 2010
He explained that Alice in Wonderland had opened with excellent IMAX business across Europe. “Indeed, the business being done at IMAX screens with ‘Alice’ has been terrific, and we believe ‘Alice’ will work well for IMAX audiences given the visual richness, and the colour in the movie. It might also have been helped by the number of people who saw the trailer during the Avatar screenings. It is Film #3 in what was always going to be a great winter schedule, what with A Christmas Carol, Avatar and now Alice, would combine to boost and validate IMAX as the way to view 3D movies. They have helped broaden the demographic, because there might have been a perception that 3D belonged to children’s features, which is not the case. Our box office also validates the concept because our box office per screen is 4-times that of an ‘ordinary’ 3D screening.”
Standford says IMAX is continuing to invest in its own movies, and we make at least one a year. “We are about to release Hubble to audiences, and next year it will be ‘Animal Autumn’, and every year we produce a movie that might be considered educational. In fact there are still plenty of IMAX theatres that depend on these movies. But most of these are also bringing in Hollywood product where it is appropriate, and some depend on a mix of the two. The BFI theatres in the UK still play a lot of educational product in their repertoire. Our Berlin theatre still has a very good schools/educational business, as does the BFI, and keep the venue busy all day. In Moscow they are still playing 3 shows of Avatar a day, plus 5 screenings of ‘Alice’ and operating right throughout the night such is the demand.”
Standford explained that IMAX investments are usually limited to a joint-venture with partners. “The move to digital over the past 18 months or so has helped drive expansion. Our j-v propositions see us investing in the cinema system. Our partners take care of the bricks and mortar, so to speak. The cinema and the multiplex remains the property of the exhibitor, with our investment into the IMAX screen and system.”
“Avatar has driven up the revenue ratio dramatically. Our revenue per screen for a movie like Avatar, but also for less high-profile movies, is between 3 and 4-times that of a conventional 3D screening. The sheer amount of cash being thrown off, from a week’s screenings, has made everyone sit up and notice. We now have a couple of cinemas in Europe [doing] around $3m a week. We have 35 theatres doing around $1m a week, and this is extremely good business.”
© Rapid TV News 2010
