Maybe it's just the Tinseltown hangover brought on by its 1996 Oscar for technical achievement, but IMAX has gone Hollywood - big time. The Toronto-based company, whose large-screen, 3-D explorations have long been staples of the science-museum crowd, plans to jack up its mass market appeal with more short fictional films and a worldwide rollout of new motion-simulator rides.
Last year, IMAX introduced Wings of Courage, a 45-minute 3-D aviation adventure from Sony Pictures Classics starring Val Kilmer. Preliminary talks are now under way to bring a Toy Story-type film to multistory screens, says IMAX chair Brad Wechsler. And come December, Vegas thrill seekers can board Race for Atlantis for a digitally animated chariot ride.
Over the next few years, IMAX will add 45 new theaters to the 149 sites already spread across the globe. The public can't seem to eat it up fast enough. Some 65 million people saw IMAX movies last year, quadrupling the company's annual earnings to US$15.4 million. For IMAX shareholders, that's entertainment.
ELECTRIC WORD
IMAXed Out
