Global Biz

IMAX to open 75 more theaters in China

(Agencies)
Updated: 2011-03-24 16:55

BEIJING - IMAX Corp announced plans Thursday to open 75 more theaters in China within four years in partnership with Wanda Cinemas, the country's largest theater operator, underscoring the Chinese movie industry's rapid expansion.

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IMAX, known for its large format film technology, has 45 theaters open in China. It expects to have 300 theaters operating in the country by 2016.

There was no disclosure of the monetary value of the expansion plans and profit-sharing deal signed in Beijing.

CEO Richard Gelfond said China is the company's fastest growing market, and the deal means Wanda will be the single largest operator of IMAX theaters outside the United States.

"Last year, we experienced record growth at IMAX ... Nowhere was our growth more evident than in China," said Gelfond, who added the company's 2010 box office revenues in China were 286 million yuan ($44 million), a 10-fold jump from the previous year.

Part of that stemmed from the conversion of "Aftershock," a Chinese movie about the 1976 Tangshan quake, into IMAX format. That epic became China's highest-grossing movie.

Gelfond said the company plans to do conversions of two upcoming movies, the patriotic "Founding of a Party," and Hong Kong director John Woo's "Flying Tigers."

China's movie industry remains relatively small compared to more developed markets like the United States. The North American box office totaled $10.6 billion in 2009, according to the Motion Picture Association of America.

However, expansion plans are rapidly under way. The country added 313 movie theaters and 1,533 new screens last year, for a total of just over 6,200 screens. The Chinese government has said it expects 20,000 screens in operation by 2015.

Wang Jianlin, chairman of the Wanda Group, said the partnership "will prove to be significant for China's general movie industry."

"Today's strategic cooperation between our two companies is very important. With Wanda providing the facilities and IMAX providing the technology ... more and more of the Chinese public will get the opportunity to experience this."

China's emerging middle class is showing a newfound enthusiasm for cinema. Last year's blockbuster 3-D epic "Avatar," which also played on IMAX screens in China, drew enormous crowds willing to wait up to six hours in line for relatively pricey tickets.