Written by Steve 'Frosty' Weintraub
Last week I did something incredibly coolâ¦.I got to visit IMAX headquarters in Santa Monica and take a short tour of the facilities. Of course the tour alone wouldâve made the drive down there pretty coolâ¦but I wasnât just going to see their headquarters. No, I went there to interview Greg Foster - The Chairman and President of IMAX Filmed Entertainment!
As a huge supporter of IMAX, you could sort of say I was excited.
As most of you have probably noticed, every time I speak with a director I always bring up IMAX (Jon Favreau, D.J. Caruso). I figure with the success of âDark Knightâ and how even casual moviegoers raved about the IMAX footage, many other filmmakers and studios are going to start working with the format.
And Greg Foster confirmed my suspicions.
Anyhow, since this interview is a big one, I want to keep the intro brief. But since some of you might not have the time to read the entire conversationâ¦..here are some important bullet points from the interview:
- Greg says theyâre working on showing live events and classic movies in IMAX theaters! Imagine watching the Super Bowl or a Radiohead concert or Rocky Horror (at midnight) in IMAX! He said he hopes this will be set up and working in 12 to 24 months.
- As most of you know, IMAX cameras are very noisy. Greg said they are working very hard to create a quiet camera that would be easier to work with. This would help filmmakers on dialogue scenes. He said they are working with a partner but wouldnât say who the partner isâ¦
- Explains how IMAX used to play movies for 8-10 weeks, then it became 6-8 weeks, then it became 4-6 weeks and itâs probably going to become 2-4 weeks for a new movie due to demand for the format.
- He explains all the benefits of digital IMAX and how the new format will make showing more movies feasible and easier. Imagine instead of one movie playing all week, having multiple movies at the same theater.
- In the next 18-24 months he thinks 200 more theaters will have IMAX - with theaters around the world getting the format.
- Says Chris Nolan and Wally Pfister (DP on Dark Knight) spent a year studying IMAX before deciding to use the format on Dark Knight. He called them âtrue students of IMAXâ.
- He goes through their releases of 2009 till Night at the Museum 2
- He thinks âWatchmen is going to just blow the covers off our screensâ
- Confirms Michael Bay is shooting with IMAX cameras on TF2
Anyway, whatâs posted below is a great interview with one of the heads of IMAX. If youâre a fan of the format like I am, I know youâll find it an interesting and informative interview.
Of course a big thank you to everyone who set this interview up and to Greg Foster for taking some time out of his busy schedule to talk to me. Itâs much appreciated.
Collider: So thereâs a lot of things Iâd like to cover and I donât even know where to start, so letâs start with this yearâs been very good for you guys. The biggest thing I see as a fan of the IMAX format is that there arenât enough IMAX screens. Iâm not talking about the digital IMAXâ¦Iâm talking about the full-on IMAX experience. So where are you guys right now as far as getting more screens available in the United States and also in foreign territories.
Greg Foster: Iâm going to answer that in 2 parts. First of all, we do not nor will we differentiate between a film screen, a digital screenâweâre speaking in reality here as opposed to theory and the reality is that IMAX Corporation is basically in every cool museum, aquarium, space center that you could possibly be in. We have 3 at the Smithsonian. So after we worked our way through that network, we realized we needed to be in the commercial multiplex situation. And so we started building IMAX film-based screens in giant multiplexes. Multiplexes, as Iâm sure youâve noticed, areâ¦there are lots of them. Theyâre not being built any longer with a thousand seats, 800 seats, etc. Thereâs a cost involved and the world is getting digital. So I would take fairly major exception to what you said of full IMAX vs. not the digital IMAX because, in our opinion, and thereâs lots of marketing research to back it up, but itâs also my intuitive gut, while itâs correct that the screen sizes are often different just like they were different between our original, initial theatres and the ones that were built that were film-based 5 years later and the ones that were built that were film-based 5 years after that. What we have become is user-friendly, and we are a practical solution to exhibition to our 3 constituencies; studios, exhibition and movie-goers. And we want to be as many places as we possibly can and the only way we can do that in a real world, 2008 business environment, because we are a for-profit company, is to take advantage of the digital technology that weâve created and also to not be unilaterally focused or singularly focused on one thing. Screen size. Itâs the quality of the image. Itâs the 12,000 watts of digital surround sound. Itâs the geometry and the relationship between where someone is sitting and the screen. Itâs the fact that our screens are curved and tilted towards the audience producing a much more immersive experience rather than just a flat, stagnant screen. When a movie starts in IMAX, you donât have 15 trailers. Thereâs one or two trailers and a 30-second branding trailer. You get right to the feature. So thereâs a variety of elements, or suite of tools, that make up the IMAX experience and it really should be irrelevant whether itâs in the digital environment or a film-based environment.
Collider: Yes, I didnât mean to come at you like that with my first question. That wasnât my intention, but I definitely heardâ¦listen Iâm a huge fan of IMAX as you know.
Greg Foster: Yes, we love that.
Collider: But, in my opinion, there arenât enough IMAX screens and so where I was going with my initial question wasâ¦
Greg Foster: How do we expand our network?
Collider: Well, what are the expansion plans in 2009?
Greg: Great, Iâll tell you right now. In July we began openingâ¦can I get economic in any way or is it not really relevant to your crowd?
Collider: You know something? I donât think itâs as relevant as just the hard fact of how many more screens will beâ¦.
Greg: Can they be expecting . . .
Collider: Exactly.
Greg: There is something that I think you have to know though.
Collider: Okay, whatâs that?
Greg: When we convert a movie, thereâs a fixed cost converting through DMR a film. And then when you release the movie a print of a movie like âThe Dark Knightââ¦Iâm looking for the poster. Itâs outside. The bestâ¦now you said 2009 is going to be better than 2008. That would be incredible. Iâm not sure how you top âThe Dark Knightâ but if youâreâ¦
Collider: No Iâm not.
Greg: I hope that that happens. Iâm not betting on it but I hope that it happens. If a print of âThe Dark Knightâ costs $30,000 in IMAX â a digital print of a movie like âThe Dark Knightâ or any other 2-1/2 hour movie in IMAX costs less than $1,000. So if youâre wondering how do we expand our network, we expand our network with digital auditoriums where an exhibitor and a distributor can get together and create a deal to play a film when theyâre dealing with a fixed cost of less than $1,000 as opposed to a fixed cost of $25 or $30,000 and if youâre a distributor or studio and you want to play a movie but youâre spending $30,000 a print, youâre going to have to play that movie for 4-6 weeks to be able to make your money back. But if youâre playing that movie and the print or the digital hard drive costs less than $1,000, you can afford to play the movie for 2 weeks and then have IMAX move onto another movie in its theatres and that gives IMAX movie-goers to see more movies from more studios in more locations due to this technology.
Collider: Absolutely. And thatâs definitely a factor for IMAX and for you guys but I guess Iâm getting back to my point ofâ¦how many more theatres do you think will have the IMAX format? Thatâs where I was going.
Greg: Iâll tell you. So âEagle Eyeâ opened in 14 digital locations and 60 something film-based locations. âMadagascarâ will open in all of our original theatres that have traditionally been playing Hollywood DMR titles as well as 35 new locations all of which are digital and all of which have been installed in the last 3 months. âThe Day the Earth Stood Stillâ will play in 10 more locations than âMadagascarâ because between November 7th and December 12th we will install 10 more theatres. When we get to âWatchmenâ in March, weâll probably have an additional 20 theatres. When we get to âTransformers 2â weâll probably be close to 100 new theatres from where we were a year before that. So weâve sold in partnershipâsold is the wrong wordâwe haveâ¦theyâre joint venture theatres most of themâover 200 theatres in the last year weâve made these arrangements. Weâve installed to date 20 of them. So over the course of the next 18-24 months those 200 theatres will be into the marketplace. We just announced today 2 new theatres in the U.K. with Odeon. One in Wimbledon and one in Greenwich. Last week we announced 3 new theatres with Constantine in Austria. A month ago we announced 4 new theatres with Hoytâs in Australia. A month before that we announced 4 new theatres with Tokyu in Japan.
Collider: So let me ask you this question. How much do you think the success of âDark Knightâ this summer helped your brand?
Greg: âDark Knightâ was sort of the straw that broke the camelâs back. If you look at the last 12 to 18 months it was âNight at the Museumâ. â300â was really important to IMAX. â300â was the movie thatâ¦.and we had one core audience for a long, long time. Families-- people that would go to see our movies that would bring a 5 or 6 or 8 year old kid. Then we expanded our audience with Hollywood DMR to start includingâ¦.when we did âThe Matrixâ we thoughtâ¦we worried that the sky was falling. That oh my God weâre taking a movie, weâre making it a 2,3, 5 to 1 aspect ratio because thatâs how the Wachowskiâs designed it and weâre releasing it. Itâs kind of R-rated, right? Some stuff that you havenât seen in IMAX before and weâre releasing it into our network. And you know there was like this religious zealotry of IMAX that you know you couldnât do that and we tried it and it worked. â300â was the movie that put us over the edge. â300â was the movie where people really accepted that IMAX had this new core audience to go with the family audience of the techy crowd. 15 to 30 year oldâs, a little bit more boys than girls, very gadgety, very sort of internet focused, buy your tickets in advance and it was hugely important to us. So now weâve got these 2 core audiences, so while âThe Dark Knightâ was really important, I would venture to say that âThe Dark Knightâ was the straw that broke the camelâs back. It really began 12 to 18 months ago and I donât think that we would be where we are where it not for â300â, âThe Dark Knightâ, âHarry Potterâ etc.
Collider: As you know Iâve been interviewing a bunch of directors and asking them, are they going to shoot with IMAX cameras. Soâ¦
Greg: Like D.J. Caruso who you spoke with.
Collider: Exactly. So my question for you isâ¦
Greg: Who we love.
Collider: â¦which he sounds like heâs going to use and Favreau talked about possibly doing IMAX or 3D. I donât think heâs exactly figured out what heâs going to do.
Greg: Well you know weâre doingâ¦Michael Bay is shooting âTransformers 2â with IMAX cameras.
Collider: Iâm a huge fan of that franchise and Michael Bay. I canât wait. Have you had other filmmakers come at youâ¦.
Greg: Many. But weâre very, very, very careful. And the reason weâre very careful is because weâre spoiled. And weâre spoiled because of Chris Nolan and Wally Pfister. When âThe Dark Knightâ happened, Chris and Wally spent a year studying IMAX. They did not decide they were going to do it until they had done tests and really had ingested the IMAX process and learned about it, and are probably now infinitely more versed, well versed in IMAX than most of the people that work at IMAX. These are true students of IMAX. And, you know weâve learned lots of different ways that we are not a panacea. And often people think we are. We know weâre not. We know that you canât save a movie by simply shooting with IMAX cameras. We know you canât save a movie by simply deciding to put it in 3D. So we need to make sure that when someone gets involved with something as intimate as our cameras, which is so important to us, that itâs someone who understands what IMAX means, who understands how to shoot with the cameras and who has a movie that is a success whether IMAX is a part of it or not. If youâre going to use the IMAX cameras as a gimmick to get involved and try to sell more tickets, not interested. If youâre going to use IMAX cameras to organically take you somewhere take you to a different place, a better place than perhaps youâd have been in the beginning but youâre already in a great spot to begin with, then we want to talk with you. If youâre going to use IMAX cameras and youâre a visionary film maker like Michael Bay, like Chris Nolanâgreat. But if youâre going to use IMAX cameras just because someoneâs willing to pay for it but you donât really have a vision, itâs not for us.
Collider: So my next question for you is Chris Nolan mentioned that the cameras are very loud and he obviously would have loved to have done some dialogue sequences but obviously couldnât.
Greg: And weâre working very hard to make sure that the next time he chooses to shoot with IMAX cameras heâll be able to.
Collider: And thatâs my follow upâ¦thatâs the question I want to know. How are you guys on your end adjusting the technology to make it quieter?
Greg: Weâre working very hard on it.
Collider: So this is like priority one?
Greg: Itâs priority one-- A or B. There are several top priorities. Itâs one of them. We know where we are. We know that this is something that is valuable but maybe even more than valuableâexciting, that really showcases IMAX and showcases IMAX as part ofâ¦you know I always have this saying⦠Itâs show business. You have to do both. Thereâs no show without the business and thereâs no business without the show. Shooting with IMAX cameras is kind of a bullâs-eye on both of that. If weâre careful and really discrete about who we let use our cameras, if we deliver them a user-friendly experience that allows for picture and sound to be synced up and for you to be able to get dialogue in then I think you kind of optimize your show business criteria. And so itâs very much in all of our best interests to make that work and thatâs something that with a partner, whoâs also in the camera business, weâre spending a lot of time trying to figure out.
Collider: Okay. So I guess Iâm not going to find out who the partner is?
Greg: Not right now.
Collider: So besides the big-budget Hollywood movies that are coming next year we have âTransformers 2â, we have âWatchmenâ, what other projects are coming down the IMAX pipeline that youâre excited about?
Greg: Well, Iâll go through our release schedule, at least the ones weâve already announced. Thereâs some ones that we havenât announced that we know what weâre doing and youâll be hearing about them soon.
Collider: And I understand.
Greg: Well let me go through them. Okayâ¦.so we have âMadagascar 2â, which you havenât seen that yet?
Collider: I have not.
Greg: I think youâll really enjoy it when you do. âThe Day the Earth Stood Stillâ, very excited about that with our partners at Fox who we havenât spent time with in a while so itâs great to go back with them. Big supporters of them.
Collider: Yeah, Iâm a supporter of Fox and Iâve been incredibly disappointed with that studio and the films that theyâve been releasing recently. I hope that âThe Day the Earth Stood Stillâ is a return to them making good movies.
Greg: All I can tell you is that they are spending with the marketing of that movie like a studio that is very confident that they have something.
Collider: Good.
Greg: So we hope that itâs a great movie as wellâ¦.Then in January, as some people have talked about, I think itâs likely that thereâll be a re-release of âThe Dark Knightâ. In February weâre really, really excited about a movie called âUnder the Sea 3Dâ which is a 45-minute IMAX documentary movie about under the sea. Probably not for your group but nevertheless weâre very excited about it.
Collider: I am too.
Greg: We think âWatchmenâ is going to just blow the covers off our screens. You know Zack is a huge supporter of ours. He has crafted the movie to take advantage of the IMAX experience. It would not surprise me at all on future movies if Zack shoots with IMAX cameras at one point or at least explores it. And Iâm very confident and really pumped. When you go and see that trailer when it was shown, which I must have seen 15 times before âThe Dark Knightâ, people went ape-shit.
Collider: I know.
Greg: And thatâs always a good sign.
Collider: Yeah.
Greg: Very excited about âMonsters vs. Aliensâ, in fact just saw a piece from it today which is really, really funny.
Collider: I saw about 10 minutes of it. Did you see the sequence with the President going up the stairs?
Greg: I did and I saw in the war room which I thought was very good.
Collider: I saw the same stuff.
Greg: Yeah, very funny.
Collider: I think it was really good.
Greg: I do, too. We love working with DreamWorks. Jeffrey Katzenberg has been a great partner and in fact just last week or the week before announced that we anticipate being a part of âKung Fu Panda 2â which is great.
Collider: He talked very passionatelyâ¦I interviewed him recently right before Comic-Con and he spoke very passionately about 3D filmmaking, 3D IMAX, all that stuff and he seems to be a very strong proponent.
Greg: Heâs bet a big part of his company on 3D and itâs been great to see the way heâs embraced us. Not only do they make incredible movies and heâs the smartest guy around, but heâs really been a great partner to work with. At every studio and itâs my job to bring studios to IMAX and to bring IMAX to the studios and at every studio thereâs sort of a go-to person. For the relationship to be successful I have to have someone who I work really closely with. And he has been, along with Anne Globe who runs marketing, that person at DreamWorks and Iâd be less than honest with you if I told you it hasnât been really fun to have that experience with him because heâs just a completely straight no surprises sort of guy. You just have to lay it all out, tell him what the scoop is, just be direct and itâll all work out. And I really, really enjoyed that experience. Heâs Jeffrey Katzenberg. Heâs a legend but itâs been a reallyâ¦Iâve really enjoyed it a lot. So, anyway then we go to the next movie that we can discuss that weâve announced which is âNight at the Museum 2â also with Fox. I think weâve announced that havenât we? Okay. I donât know actually now that I think about it.
Collider: Yeah we have.
Greg: Have we? Okay. Then we go to âTransformers 2â.
Collider: I just realized âNight at the Museumâ is next summer.
Greg: Itâs May 22nd.
Collider: For some reason I thought it was a holiday film.
Greg: Thatâs because the first one was. And thenâ¦.I think thatâs as far as I want to go for the time being.
Collider: Okay. And with thoseâ¦.I know that Michael Bay is filming, I believe with IMAX cameras.
Greg: Correct.
Collider: But with the other onesâ¦
Greg: Three sequences right now.
Collider: Are the other ones filming with IMAX cameras?
Greg: No.
Collider: Are they using the DI and�
Greg: Itâs DMR.
Collider: Is that what itâs called?
Greg: Weâre DMR-ing their DIâs. Weâre using our digital re-mastering and converting the movies into IMAX like weâve done with âI Am Legendâ and âThe Matrixâ films and âThe Dark Knightâ besides the 30 minutes that were shot with IMAX cameras etc which is a propriety process thatâs based off a very confusing algorhythm that allows us to take traditional 35mm and/or digital intermediates and through 4 key steps convert them into IMAX so they look as if they were shot with IMAX cameras.
Collider: So I have another question about the 3D IMAX.
Greg: Okay.
Collider: Iâve gone to see a 3D IMAXâ¦Iâm talking as a personal experienceâ¦Iâve gone to see a 3D IMAX movie before and they have a big bucket of glasses, they give them to you. And Iâve had glasses before that are not in perfect condition. Whatâs the story if you are like an IMAX 3D fan or with a lot of 3D movies coming in the future, I think that Jeffrey Katzenberg spoke about theyâll be a point where everyone will have their own glasses.
Greg: Maybe heâs right. Iâm not one to disagree with Jeffrey Katzenberg because heâs forgotten more than Iâll ever know. But maybe to me that feels like a while away.
Collider: Okay, so the glasses thing is justâ¦.
Greg: Hereâs the thing with the glasses. The glassesâ¦there are sometimes you go and the glasses arenât as fresh as they should be, you know they donât work or the battery is out. In the old days when you needed batteriesâwhich you donât anymoreâbut most of the time the glasses work. Itâs very much of a veryâ¦.I mean like 99.9% of the time itâs an operator issue meaning the AMC or the Regal or Cinemark or National Amusements whatever, we do a lot of training on making sure that those are up and running. And so it shouldnât happen that often that thereâs a problem and Iâm sorry that you had one.
Collider: Oh I was just curious about that whole thing. My other question for you is âThe Dark Knightâ obviously did extremely wellâ¦.Iâm back on that subjectâ¦and it played for many weeks. In fact, itâs probablyâ¦.I donât even know if itâsâ¦.
Greg: Itâs still playing.
Collider: Yeah, I was going to say itâs still playing. What Iâm curious about is say next year you have a lot more movies coming in IMAX, say thereâs going to be a few that double up, you know that are near each other. How does it work behind the scenes in deciding how long a movie plays? Will you only have the 2 weeksâ¦when they sign the contract is like for 3 weeks or for 6 weeks? Iâm just curious, you know, how that all works behind the scenes.
Greg: IMAX had a chicken and the egg problem. We couldnât sell enough theatres because we didnât have enough movies and we couldnât get enough movies because we didnât have enough theatres. Well weâve cracked the code on that problem now. And so what youâve just hit on is how I spent 75% of the last month. It is an incredibly topical issue. We used to play movies for 8-10 weeks, then it became 6-8 weeks, then it became 4-6 weeks and itâs probably going to become 2-4 weeks. Thereâs discussions on should we have, with lower print costs because of digital, 2 separate tracks existing at one time. This is all in theory. You open a movie in Los Angeles and it playsâ¦.you open 2 movies on Memorial Day weekend in IMAX. Half of them play inâ¦.one of them plays in half of the theatres in L.A. or any other market, and the other one plays on the other half. Thatâs great in theory. What weâre trying to do now is work on what kind of mix we can have so we can have more than one movie successfully playing and being profitable for our studio partners in the marketplace at one time. We havenât cracked it yet and I donât know if itâll be a year before we do or 2 years but itâs something that weâre definitely contemplating and juggling and itâs a function of some of the success that weâve had. You know, we haveâ¦next year weâll have 10 maybe 12 movies. 4 years ago we had 3. So it comes with the territory. Itâs a by-product of success. Itâs a nice problem to have but itâs a problem.
Collider: Iâm sure youâre already encountering this on your end is that with the success of your product youâre going to have more theatres approaching you to be putting on more screens and hence as the years progress you would be able to deal with this by just having more screen space.
Greg: Yeah, but weâre not going to be on every street corner. Itâs very important to us that we uphold the responsibility of being a premium experience and when we sell someone or partner with someone on a JV feeder, weâre not going to go into Santa Monica on one side of the promenade and then all of a sudden sell another exhibitor and IMAX digital theatre on the other side of the promenade. We have to be very careful to keep that premium experience. Youâre not going to see âMy Dinner with Andreâ in IMAX. There are certain movies that are right for IMAX and certain movies that arenât. We have to be careful that we create and encourage this sort of premium experience that allows for a special environment. Weâre not something that someone wants to go to for just any movie. Thatâs the whole point that I was making earlier about IMAX is not a panacea.
Collider: So what is the story with possibly down the road now that youâre going to be moving into digital projection and having digital prints, having say like a Friday night midnight movie of an IMAX kind of thing or doing specialâ¦.you know what Iâm saying?
Greg: Yeah, and live events. Weâre working on it and I think itâs a great idea. I mean, thereâs no way anyone can tell me that you wouldnât enjoy the Super Bowl in IMAX or seeing a concert in IMAX or you know, seeing âRocky Horror Picture Showâ at midnight in IMAX. So weâre definitelyâ¦.and digital allows for programming flexibility that we never would have had before.
Collider: And thatâs what I was actually going to. Theyâve recently started doing the opera at certain closed circuit events things at theatres and you knowâ¦my question is I want to see Radiohead in concert. You guys have an amazing sound system. How far down the road do you think that is before you guysâ¦
Greg: 12 to 24 months.
Collider: And the way you envision that down the road, do you envision thatâ¦.how do you envision that being shot? Are there going to be special digital camera and are those things around now or are you guys working or developing them?
Greg: Theyâre not necessarily IMAX cameras which is what makes it user-friendly. Theyâre digital cameras that we can then take into our system and in real-time output to our servers to be able to show an IMAX version literally real-time which is what weâre working on and are very excited about.
Collider: Okay. Final question. Whatâs your screenâ¦Iâm just curious for tech numbersâ¦whatâs your screen count now and where do you envision at the end of 2009 and then 2010 your screen count being?
Greg: Iâm taking in round numbers here.
Collider: Sure. Thatâs what Iâm looking for.
Greg: IMAX was 40 years old a year ago. So in October of 2007 we had more or less 300 theatres in 40-something countries. Todayâ since then, maybe thatâs a better way of putting it, we have either sold or partnered on an additional 250 more or less screens. 99% of those 250 screensâthe new screensâare digital. A lot of them are in the U.S., probably 200 are in the U.S. and 50 are overseas. More or less. Might be even 210 in the U.S. and the rest overseas, whatever. But all of them areâ¦or 99.9% of them are also commercial. Meaning theyâre not in museums, science centers or aquariums, theyâre in multiplexes. So in December of 2009 were one to release a movie, my guess is, youâd be releasing that movie in 150 more commercial locations than youâre releasing the movie in today. So if youâre releasing a movie today in 110 North American locations and up to 50 international locations, so thatâs 160, right? Youâd have 125 or so additional locations at the end of 2009.
Collider: Okay. And Iâm assuming you envision it continuing to goâ¦
Greg: Oh no it is. You said take me to the end of 2009.
Collider: Absolutely. So is there anything I have covered that you want to get across to say the audience.
Greg: No, I think that we feel their love. We appreciate it. Weâre working our rear ends off to continue to deliver high-quality cool entertainment that they can experience on our big giant screens with our great sound and our crystal clear images. Our screens are always the largest screen in any complex but screen size is one of many variables that creates the IMAX experience and we think weâre on to something. Movie-goers and our âsecret sauceâ moviemakers seem to get that. We work with the most visionary film makers in the world whether is Chris Nolan or Bob Zemeckis or the Harry Potter people or Bryan Singer or Zack Snyder or Michael Bay or Steven Spielberg. Those are the people that gravitate towards IMAX and itâs their movies that we seek and we will continue to do that and try to deliver to your audience and our audience the most dynamic exciting experience they could imagine.