James Cameron "Avatar" Breaks Imax Box Office Records

"The worldwide IMAX network was operating at near full capacity throughout the entire weekend," said IMAX CEO Richard L. Gelfond. "This success is a testament to the groundbreaking work of James Cameron and his team, who have raised the bar for storytelling and truly transported us into another world."





LOS ANGELES — IMAX Corp. said Monday the film "Avatar" made $9.5 million in box office ticket sales during its opening weekend in 178 of its theaters in the U.S.

"Avatar," a science fiction thriller directed by James Cameron and released by News Corp.'s Twentieth Century Fox, took in roughly 13 percent of the total sales in IMAX theaters, the company said. Total domestic sales came to $73 million.

The movie made another $4.1 million internationally on 58 screens, IMAX said. IMAX plans to release the film in 25 more locations in the next few weeks, including theaters in China and Japan.

"From the very beginning, James Cameron considered how the film would look and feel in IMAX, and as a result, Jim, Jon Landau and the Lightstorm team have produced a spectacular film that moviegoers are clearly reacting to with enthusiasm and strong word of mouth," added Greg Foster, Chairman and President of IMAX Filmed Entertainment. "Cameron's incredible vision and passion for pushing the technological boundaries of filmmaking, combined with a superb marketing and distribution campaign from Twentieth Century Fox has created an epic release that we are very proud to be a part of. We look forward to transporting more moviegoers to Pandora via The IMAX 3D Experience in the weeks ahead."

Avatar is the story of an ex-Marine who finds himself thrust into hostilities on an alien planet filled with exotic life forms. As an Avatar, a human mind in an alien body, he finds himself torn between two worlds, in a desperate fight for his own survival and that of the indigenous people. More than ten years in the making, Avatar marks Cameron's return to feature directing since helming 1997's Titanic, the highest grossing film of all time and winner of eleven Oscars(R) including Best Picture. WETA Digital, renowned for its work in The Lord of the Rings Trilogy and King Kong, will incorporate new intuitive CGI technologies to transform the environments and characters into photorealistic 3D imagery that will transport the audience into the alien world rich with imaginative vistas, creatures and characters.



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Avatar Imax 3D Tickets on Sale Now

Avatar: An IMAX 3D Experience will be digitally re-mastered into the unparalleled image and sound quality of The IMAX Experience® through proprietary IMAX DMR® technology. With crystal clear images, laser-aligned digital sound and maximized field of view, IMAX provides the world's most immersive movie experience.





The director of Titanic takes us to a spectacular new world beyond our imagination, where a reluctant hero embarks on a journey of redemption, discovery and unexpected love -- as he leads a heroic battle to save a civilization in this epic action adventure fantasy. Conceived 14 years ago and over four years in the making, Avatar breaks new ground in delivering a fully immersive, emotional story and reinvents the moviegoing experience.

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A Christmas Carol: The 3D IMAX Experience (2009)

A Christmas Carol is, above all else, an astounding visual experience. Other studios either use 3D to enhance already superior films or attempt to hide mediocrity. Robert Zemeckis stands nearly alone is using this newfangled version of old-fashioned technology to push the boundaries of 'immersion'. Like The Polar Express in 2004 and Beowulf in 2007, A Christmas Carol is not simply a movie to be seen, but rather to experience. If the film is not as haunting and thrilling as Beowulf or as intoxicating as Henry Selick's more surreal Coraline, this still sets new marks for realism in the painted world. Zemeckis's artists and performers have partnered stunningly lifelike animation (there are no 'dead eyes' this time) with at once astonishing and invisible 3D effects work, creating the illusion of living inside a movie better than anything I've yet experienced.




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Where the Wild Things Are: The IMAX Experience

It is often said that The Adventures of Tom Sawyer is a children's novel that adults can enjoy, while The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is an adult novel that children can enjoy. This statement in itself constitutes a form of elitism. Just because Huck Finn is a better, richer novel than Tom Sawyer, it must be presumed that the second story must not have been truly intended for children. This idea rears its ugly head in the discussion of family films as well, as poorly made family films are often labeled 'just for kids', while superior family entertainment is often accused of being secretly made for adults. The very idea of high-quality entertainment that is specifically directed at children seems to be some kind of oxymoron in the critical community. I have no idea for whom Spike Jonze crafted Where the Wild Things Are, but the film is a very much a high-quality children's movie.




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Imax Role on The Evolution of Cinema

IMAX is one such advancement in films that has transformed the cinema-going experience to create much larger screens with higher resolution movies being projected onto them. Film shot for IMAX is shot on larger 65 mm film which is then run through the camera horizontally. This means that the IMAX film image is 69.6 mm wide and 48.5 mm tall, instead of the normal 48.5 mm wide and 22.1 mm tall.



The film is then run through the camera three times as quickly in order for it to be exposed at 24 frames per second.

Several films these days contain scenes that have been shot specifically for display on IMAX, such as the new Transformers sequel, Transformers Revenge of the Fallen, which features three scenes shot for IMAX.

The film is then run through the camera three times as quickly in order for it to be exposed at 24 frames per second.

Several films these days contain scenes that have been shot specifically for display on IMAX, such as the new Transformers sequel, Transformers Revenge of the Fallen, which features three scenes shot for IMAX.


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