IMAX is shooting for a bigger role in cinema
To get the maximum visual effect for his upcoming World War II movie “Dunkirk,” Christopher Nolan relied on a $1 million, 54-pound IMAX camera that was mounted to the front of a fighter plane and submerged off the coast of France.
“They’ve taken these cameras into space and into the oceans, so there’s great precedent for what we’re trying to do,” said Nolan, who has filmed with IMAX cameras since the 2008 movie “The Dark Knight.” “There’s a genuine difference in the way, as a filmmaker, you are inspired to tell the story.”
“Dunkirk,” filmed mostly in IMAX, may be the most striking example yet of how the 50-yearold Canadian company is getting more involved in the making of the movies that play on its giant theater screens. IMAX is recruiting Hollywood’s biggest names — including Michael Bay, J.J. Abrams and Rian Johnson — to use its digital and film cameras on productions.
Four Hollywood releases this year were shot with IMAX cameras, up from three last year and just one in 2015. Less than 15 percent of the roughly 30 movies released annually in IMAX theaters use the company’s film and digital cameras, partly because they’re more expensive than conventional equipment. But IMAXis aggressively marketing its highend cameras to filmmakers in an effort to boost that share.
The reason: Movies filmed with the company’s cameras boast higher image quality, crispness and color, and take advantage of IMAX auditoriums by filling the screens to the edge, directors and producers say.
To shoot the upcoming “Transformers: The Last Knight” in 3-D and IMAX, Bay used newly built rigs to allow two Alexa IMAX digital cameras to shoot simultaneously.
Marvel and IMAX used the digital cameras to shoot the first two episodes of their “Inhumans” television series in Hawaii, which will screen in IMAX theaters in September before they hit the small screen. Marvel is filming its upcoming movie “Avengers: Infinity War” completely in IMAX. And director Johnson used IMAX cameras for parts of “Star Wars: The Last Jedi” due out in December.
IMAX, which has offices in Toronto, Los Angeles and New York, is making the push at a time when fewer people are going to the multiplex. As television screens improve and TV quality enjoys a “golden age,” films need to promise a bigger and better experience than audiences can get in their living rooms.
IMAXalso faces growing competition from other large-format brands created by its own customers. AMC Entertainment and Regal Entertainment — the companies that house IMAX auditoriums — have developed their own premium-brand theaters.
“In order for the consumer to leave the couch and go out to the movies, they need a reason. When you use the IMAX cameras, it supercharges the IMAX experience,” IMAX Corp. Chief Executive Richard Gelfond said.
Each camera costs IMAX about $1 million to build. The segment that includes camera rentals totaled $19.4 million in 2016, or about 5 percent of IMAX’s annual sales. For IMAX, the priority isn’t to make money from camera rentals but to make its movies a bigger draw for consumers.
“For IMAX, the upside is pretty substantial,” said Eric Wold, a media analyst for B. Riley & Co. who follows IMAX. “It becomes another reason you have to see the film in IMAX to get the full experience.”
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