Global entertainment technology co has set a 100-screen target for India in the next 5 yrs
Javed Farooqui (THE ECONOMIC TIMES; January 12, 2023)

Mumbai: Global entertainment tech company IMAX Corporation will be speeding up its market expansion plans in India after witnessing healthy growth in box office collections in 2022, a top company executive said.

IMAX Corporation CEO Richard Gelfond, who is on his fourth trip to India, said that the time is ripe to up its investments in the Indian market as 2022 was the best year for the company after 2019.

“It is the perfect time for IMAX to expand in India because the stars have lined up in the right way. Our box collection is up 41% in 2022 compared to 2019,” he told ET.

‘Avatar: The Way Of Water’, he said, has become IMAX’s highest grossing movie in India. “The movie generated $4 million and is still going very strong. Our per screen average in the country was $900,000 in 2022,” he added.

Gelfond said IMAX has set a 100-screen target for India in the next five years. “We have 23 screens open, and another 19 screens are in the backlog. We have targeted 100 screens in the next five years,” he said.

He noted that IMAX has 800 screens in China with another 200 screens in backlog. “India has a long way to go. It is hugely under screened,” he said.

The IMAX top boss said that the company’s biggest success in 2022 came in the form of local language films, which contributed 30% to the total box office collections. “We made a breakthrough in local language content in 2022. IMAX was perceived as a Hollywood-focussed brand. But now, people say it is a place to go for blockbuster movies whether it is Hollywood, Bollywood, or South Indian,” he added.

IMAX’s strategy to grow its business in India is three-fold, Gelfond revealed. The company will release more local language blockbuster films, open new screens, and go deeper by partnering with single screen theatres.

“We are going to double our bets on local language films. We did six local language films in 2022 and we intend to do 10-12 in 2023,” Gelfond said.

“We will be installing six theatres this year. We have 23 screens open, so six is about 25% growth in our network this year. We will also target some of the independent single-screen theatre operators around the country,” he noted.

IMAX will partner with real estate developers besides strengthening relationships with existing clients like PVR, Inox and Cinepolis. “Together, PVR and Inox will be financially much stronger than they were during the pandemic,” he said.

He also pointed out that Indian films are doing well in overseas markets by citing the example of Telugu film ‘RRR’, which he said collected $3.60 million in the US through IMAX.

“IMAX's involvement with Indian films is not just in India but also in other countries. Indian films do well in the Middle East, the US and the UK. We have helped the Indian film industry gain international exposure,” he said.
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Lata Jha (MINT; January 12, 2023)

Following a slow down in its India business due to the covid-19 pandemic, IMAX Corp., which develops immersive cinema technologies and manufacturers cameras and projection systems, seeks to touch the 100-screen mark in five years in India.

At present, 23 IMAX theatres operate in India. It will add six screens in 2023. In 2020, the Canadian cinema firm had set out to achieve the goal by 2025.

IMAX will partner local studios and producers, and will float a programme to promote the use of IMAX cameras to shoot big-ticket movies.

IMAX offers 70-mm motion picture film format, and projection system, wherein screen image width is greater than the height of a screen.

In 2013, IMAX and Yash Raj Films had partnered to screen Dhoom 3 and Shekhar Kapur’s Paani, which was later shelved. Recognizing the importance of screening local content in India, and not just Hollywood movies in premium formats, IMAX is looking at enhancing homegrown output and even tied up for hits such as Ponniyin Selvan-1 and Brahmastra.

“Our strategy of doing Hollywood films was a good, but it limited. Many people want to watch films in their local languages, they want to watch the kind of films they’re used to. So I think that’s going to be one of the keys to breaking this market open," Richard Gelfond, chief executive officer, IMAX, said in an interview.

“It’s inevitable that we will do deals with some larger studios as time goes by. The other thing we would really like to do is to accelerate our camera programme since we’ve developed specific digital cameras. We have met some studios and filmmakers and are in an early stage to explore ways to partner some Indian companies in helping us manage the camera programme in India. Ideally, I would like to find a company that will help us roll out faster."

Gelfond said Coronavirus-led disruptions had slowed its global expansion plans, including for India. “Five years ago, I didn’t think there will be a pandemic that would close entire countries down for three years. Not just in India, but globally, out-of-home entertainment was shut, and slowed things down. There were also side effects of covid: mall development and moviemaking slowed and you couldn’t release films, and sets were closed . And if you think of India, theatres opened in March-April of last year." Gelfond said these were primary impediments, but India was always a challenging due to government permits, licensing and regulations.

To be sure, Covid has forced IMAX to reexamine its strategy. “In 2019, 2% of our box office in India was from local Indian content. In 2022, it rose to 30%," Gelfond said.

The firm expects to release 10-12 local films in 2023 such as the Shah Rukh Khan-starrer Pathaan and Prabhas’ mythological film Adipurush.

“IMAX is a very exclusive solution that aims at getting the best on-screen experience, and is not a multiplex. So if we had 100 movies a year, that will not be feasible in the context of how we operate," Gelfond said explaining the relatively low output for IMAX screens.

Experts say some of IMAX’s bets may pay off. Film lovers are getting used to the convenience of watching multi-language content from within the comforts of their homes, theatres will have to lure them back through luxury formats such as plush auditoriums, larger and high-tech screens, as well as customized menus. It will obviously be at a higher ticket price, which at least a section of the audience will be willing to pay, they added.

“We take upfront payment, and a percentage of box office, from the exhibitor and a piece from studios. Putting an IMAX really helps the theatre brand and it doesn’t seem to take away people despite a higher price," Gelfond said.