Growing additional revenue streams seems to be the theme of the entertainment industry as 2022 starts rolling to a close. This week we see Imax CEO Richard Gelfond add their voice to the ‘innovations and expansion’ crowd, with a push to build some interesting new attractions into the wider IMAX model. Blake & Wang P.A entertainment attorney, Brandon Blake, has more.
Live Events a Possibility
One of these mentioned innovations hopes to introduce live eventing to 150 screens, in the hopes of boosting revenue and creating new sources of income. This comes as part of a drive to add further value creation to the existing IMAX model. Currently dubbed ‘IMAX 3.0’, this concept builds further on their slow expansion from an educational theatrical brand to one which offers traditional, if super-sized, Hollywood movies at a far broader range of theaters.
Exclusive Film Screenings
Additionally, they want to develop exclusive film screenings, with live Q&A sessions with filmmakers and stars and a touch of red carpet glamor. This builds on the success they already had with similar showings for the Disney+ The Beatles: Get Back earlier this year. We will next see it tabled for Don’t Worry Darling director Olivia Wilde, alongside lead actor Harry Styles, this week. Apparently the event is already sold out, which suggests they may have a firm, if novel, new idea to run with. They’ve also had some success with partnerships in the video game industry, allowing broadcasts to IMAX screens.
Of course, IMAX is a different beast to the average theater experience, but this does echo a wider industry push to recenter the theatrical experience as something bigger and better than you can get by firing up a streaming service at home and chilling on the couch. It will definitely be interesting to see how further innovations pan out for them.
