IMAX to expand in China
Shanghai Film Corporation has struck a deal to install a further 19 IMAX screens in its theaters throughout China.
The Shanghai Film Corp breaks into the world’s top five IMAX partners after commissioning 19 more cinemas able to host the super large-screen format.
SFC will up its total count of IMAX sites from 3 to 22, with “a significant number” set to complete by the end of 2015, according to the IMAX corp.
The Canadian firm had previously seen “Transformers: Age of Extinction” make its world premiere using IMAX format at the Hong Kong Cultural Center.
By July 20, Michael Bay’s blockbuster had passed a Chinese box office of $306 million, a hefty contribution towards its growing global cumulative of $889m, making use of Chinese actors and locations as well as Hollywood stars and North American landscapes.
But IMAX isn’t the only game in town; the state-run China Film Group Corporation presides over the home-grown DMAX format. Although a DMAX screen’s minimum size is slightly smaller than its older rival, DMAX can boast of lower installation costs and therefore lower ticket prices for cinemagoers.
This latest move demonstrates how important China remains to IMAX, whose Chinese branch is minority owned by two domestic investment partners, while the territory has become IMAX’s second-largest overall.
