According to a recent press release by the IMAX Corporation, the company’s current draw, Avatar, is absolutely shattering IMAX box office records.
In just ten days, the film has already taken in $39 million worldwide, making $8.8 million domestically and $3.6 million internationally in its second weekend. The $8.8 million from IMAX showings counts for about 12 percent of Avatar‘s domestic gross, despite IMAX theaters making up less than 3 percent of the screens playing the movie.
Although IMAX theaters make up a small portion of the total screens showing Avatar, 17 of the top 20 locations showing the film in the U.S. were IMAX theaters.
Internationally, IMAX theaters in both Poland and Japan saw record openings, and Avatar is still set to open on 11 IMAX screens in China, which will likely also see record breaking numbers.
Greg Foster, the Chairman and President of IMAX Filmed Entertainment, credits the overwhelming success of Avatar with the style of the movie, which is perfectly suited for the IMAX experience. “To have reached $39 million from 249 screens in just 10 days demonstrates that moviegoers clearly understand the value of experiencing Avatar in IMAX,” said Foster.
IMAX CEO Richard Gelfond echoes this, saying that the weekend’s box office results show that moviegoers are clearly favoring IMAX as the way to see Avatar, and believes that “Avatar is well on its way to becoming our highest grossing Hollywood IMAX title.”
I really loved this movie. The best thing about this movie was the integration of human and graphics. I mean you can not judge whether the character is a human being or an graphical object.
I agree 100% “Movie Lover”. It was unbelievable and I was awestruck. I had only one downside to the movie and that was when it started sounding like Al Gore or Greenpeace giving a speech to the viewers about the environment. Other than that, it was light years ahead of anything I’ve ever seen! The 3-D was superb!