IMAX - Use in Hollywood Productions

Use in Hollywood Productions

Before the end of the 1990's, theatrical features were deemed impossible to run in the IMAX venues at the time, as there was a technical limitation on the size of the film reel where films had to be run around two hours. Originally IMAX and Pixar were considering re-releasing Toy Story in 3D, but the results of the tests displayed that the render resolution could not match to the size of the IMAX image. DreamWorks in the early 2000's wanted to re-release Shrek in IMAX 3D, but this too was canceled as a result of creative changes in the studio.

Walt Disney Pictures became the first studio to release theatrical films in the IMAX process. Released on New Year's Day in 2000, Fantasia 2000 was the studio's first IMAX release and the first theatrical feature to to be presented in IMAX theaters. It was originally planned as a standard theatrical release, but in agreeing with the company to release the film, the IMAX sound system incorporated a multi-channel and multi-layer stereo system for the orchestrated soundtrack, similar to the Fantasound system Walt Disney used for the original film decades ago. The company agreed to Disney's terms and conditions to gain the exclusive first showings of the film. These included a limited engagement of 4 months (from January 1 to April 30) and 50% of the box office receipts. Not all IMAX cinemas were prepared to accept Disney's terms to present the film; however, following the IMAX release, a standard 35mm run followed in June at regular theatres.

Although Fantasia 2000 had a luke-warm financial run, the critical praise for its use of the IMAX format convinced Disney to put more releases in the giant-screen format in the pipeline. In 2002, IMAX re-issues of Beauty and the Beast and The Lion King were released in selected theaters over the winter and Christmas seasons of that year. New digital masters were created from the original CAPS production files and select scenes of animation were cleaned up to make use of the high resolution IMAX film negatives. Treasure Planet was also released in select IMAX theaters and was the first theatrical film to be released in regular and IMAX theaters simultaneously. But all of these releases had underwhelming box office returns and Disney canceled later big-screen re-releases, including Aladdin.

With the unveiling of the DMR process (see below), Warner Bros. Pictures especially embraced the format beginning in 2003 with the two Matrix sequels, Reloaded and Revolutions. Since The Prisoner of Azkaban in 2004, Warner Bros. began releasing the Harry Potter film franchise in IMAX to strong financial success. Also in 2004 the studio released Robert Zemeckis' motion-capture film The Polar Express in IMAX 3D. Polar Express became the most successful film to be released in IMAX theatres, producing at least a quarter of the film's gross of $302 million from fewer than 100 IMAX screens. Success for Warner Bros. and IMAX followed in later years with I Am Legend, Happy Feet and Batman Begins and The Dark Knight. Progressively other studios became further interested in releasing films in IMAX through the DMR process and have earned success through it. In 2009, J.J. Abrams' Star Trek was released for initially two weeks in IMAX venues in May and opened to $8.3 million dollars. The IMAX opening weekends of The Avengers and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 have since grossed $15 million.

Though they weren't filmed with IMAX cameras, Skyfall and The Amazing Spider-Man were optimized for IMAX digital screens when they were released. Both movies were filmed in high-resolution cameras and the digital negative ratio was equal to that of the IMAX Digital frame. Skyfall increased the visual information of the entire film while Amazing Spider-Man optimized the finale battle with the Lizard. James Cameron's Titanic when it was restored and re-released in theaters also specially made an open-matte version for IMAX. In 2010 after years of successful IMAX DMR releases, Warner Bros. signed a deal to release up to 20 feature films in IMAX up to 2013, including educational documentaries that were in production. The deal is currently set to finish with the second part of The Hobbit in 2013.