Search form

Robots Offers Riveting IMAX Opening

On its way to posting $36M in its opening weekend last week, Fox/Blue Skys 3D-animated ROBOTS: THE IMAX EXPERIENCE took in a strong $1.4M in only 58 North American IMAX theaters. ROBOTS, marks the first spring day-and-date DMR (Digital Remastering) release for IMAX after the hugely successful 3D IMAX presentation of POLAR EXPRESS, which pulled in more than $45M domestically.

"ROBOTS' impressive IMAX debut helps advance our commercial growth strategy, as one of our key objectives is for each IMAX theater to average at least $1 million in total box office each year," said IMAX co-ceos Richard L. Gelfond and Bradley J. Wechsler. "In just two and a half months, we believe we are well on our way towards that goal, and we've only just begun to roll out one of the best commercial film slates in IMAX's history. This film's early performance also illustrates that with each IMAX DMR release, more and more people are going to see event movies in IMAX's format - and that they're willing to pay a premium price for the experience."

IMAX theaters throughout North America reported sold out shows and great audience reaction to ROBOTS: THE IMAX EXPERIENCE this past weekend. Once again, the highest grossing theater in the network was the Comcast IMAX 3D Theatre at Jordan's Furniture in Reading, Massachusetts, which grossed approximately $60,000. The new Cinepolis Valle Oriente IMAX theater in Monterrey, Mexico, posted an impressive opening, selling out roughly half the shows during its first weekend of operation. Cinepolis' other IMAX theater, in Mexico City, which registered its own highly successful debut last November, continued to perform well, reporting results similar to Monterrey for ROBOTS in IMAX's format.

"Of our overall business, some 4% was from just 58 IMAX theaters, which is a very impressive showing," said Bruce Snyder, president, domestic distribution, Twentieth Century Fox. "The feedback from audiences has been terrific and we believe that releasing the movie in IMAX's format 'eventized' the film, helping to increase awareness and box office performance of the 35mm version. We're excited ROBOTS was the number one picture in the country this weekend, and early exit polls lead us to believe it will have strong legs in IMAX and 35mm theaters."

We're thrilled with ROBOTS' strong opening in IMAX theaters and believe this is an important development for further expanding our partnership with Twentieth Century Fox, added Greg Foster, chairman and president of IMAX Filmed Ent.

Founded in 1967, IMAX Corp. (www.imax.com) is the newest distribution platform for Hollywood content and one of the world's leading entertainment technology companies. IMAX delivers some of the world's best cinematic presentations using proprietary IMAX, IMAX 3D and IMAX DMR technology.

Bill Desowitz's picture

Bill Desowitz, former editor of VFXWorld, is currently the Crafts Editor of IndieWire.

Tags