IMAX Corp is one of the world's leading entertainment technology companies specialising in immersive motion picture technologies. The worldwide IMAX theatre network is among the most successful theatrical distribution platforms for major Hollywood films around the globe. In India, from two screens till one month back, IMAX will have 14 theatres by the end of next year. It has also partnered with Yash Raj Films for its maiden Bollywood venture Dhoom3. In an interaction with Gaurav Laghate, Richard L. Gelfond, CEO of IMAX, who visited India after 9 years, spoke about the future plans and why IMAX is so upbeat about India.
Edited excerpts...
You have recently opened IMAX theatre in Bangalore with PVR. How many more screens you are planning in India?
We are opening two IMAX theatres in Chennai, another one in Bangalore. In all, we will have seven operating theatres by end of March and probably between 10-15 by end of next year.
Its a very good time to be in India because IMAX is in 52 countries right now, and my experience is that once we hit a critical mass, it tends to expand very rapidly. Before we opened in Bangalore a month ago, we had just two theatres in India, and next year 10. So just to give you an analogy, in China in 2009, when Avatar opened, we were only 13 theatres in the country, now we have over 100 open and we will be 250 in next couple of years. Now, when Life of Pie opened last week, 20% of the box office revenue from China for the movie came from IMAX.
Similarly, two years back, we had 4-5 theatres in England, now we have 25. This pattern of once you get pass of the critical mass, you have been able to grow very rapidly, we are seeing worldwide. I feel good that it is going to happen in India too.
So what gives you confidence to partner a Hindi movie like Dhoom 3?
India has some specific challenges unique to it and one of them is that the 90 percent of movies seen by the public is Bollywood centric. So we realised that in order to succeed in India, we need to have a balance of Hollywood films and local content.
Now, we had a dilemma, because you cant really afford it always. We take a movie and convert it into IMAX print, which costs us around $1-1.5 million to do that. So unlessyou have enough theatres open, the economics really don't work.
So we wait to get to the point where we can have the mix of Hollywood and local content. Again to use China as an example, we did first film in China three years ago and this year we are doing five.
But how does the economics work now for India?
It works now for two reasons, one by the time Dhoom 3 releases, we will have 10-15 theatres opened in India. And also, we can export that film to some of our other territories. We have presence in Malaysia, Indonesia, UK, US, Thailand, and other countries where there is an appetite for the Indian movies.
But certainly, IMAX will not have 90% Bollywood and 10% Hollywood. As we are about premium movie experience and we charge a premium. We may have upto 60-65% Hollywood and 35% Bollywood movies after a while.
So how is the business model work. Do you take the film and convert it or help the studios to convert it in IMAX print?
There are different models. Typically, they film it is 35 mm digital and we take our proprietary system, DMR, and we blow the image and fill in the missing content. We incur the cost of !1-1.5 million to convert it into IMAX print and in exchange, we get 12.5% of the IMAX gross box office revenue from the studio.
The other thing that we sometimes do is that we lease our cameras to film in IMAX print. But it is not happening in Dhoom 3's case. But overtime I would like to see Bollywood films getting shot with our cameras.
Why did you not select Adlabs (Now Big Cinema) and partner with PVR, when you already have one IMAX in Mumbai with them?
We look for people who are committed to marketing as we ourselves are not in India. They have to have a right kind of theatre infrastructure, they have to have a certain foot traffic and we generally partner with people who are not just doing one theatre but are committed for a significant roll out. PVR (five theatre deal – 2 in Bangalore, 1 in Mumbai and 2 in Delhi) and SPI Cinemas (four theatres) both fits in perfectly.
We are opening one more in Mumbai in Phoenix Mills and four in Chennai and two in Hyderabad.
But why not with Adlabs?
We talked with Adlabs, which is now owned by Reliance, but they are sorting out their strategy now on where to go. I have reason to hope that they will figure out and we will work together in future.
In many countries you follow joint venture model and not the licencing model. Will you consider it here in India too?
I believe in 5 years from now, we would be able to follow that model in India too. In China, we launched 15 theatres with licensing model, for 75 we followed JV model. So somewhere down the line, here in India also, we will.
http://www.business-standard.com/india/news/we-have-seenpatternrapid-expansion-after-hitting-critical-mass-richard-l-gelford/197609/on
Edited excerpts...
You have recently opened IMAX theatre in Bangalore with PVR. How many more screens you are planning in India?
We are opening two IMAX theatres in Chennai, another one in Bangalore. In all, we will have seven operating theatres by end of March and probably between 10-15 by end of next year.
Its a very good time to be in India because IMAX is in 52 countries right now, and my experience is that once we hit a critical mass, it tends to expand very rapidly. Before we opened in Bangalore a month ago, we had just two theatres in India, and next year 10. So just to give you an analogy, in China in 2009, when Avatar opened, we were only 13 theatres in the country, now we have over 100 open and we will be 250 in next couple of years. Now, when Life of Pie opened last week, 20% of the box office revenue from China for the movie came from IMAX.
Similarly, two years back, we had 4-5 theatres in England, now we have 25. This pattern of once you get pass of the critical mass, you have been able to grow very rapidly, we are seeing worldwide. I feel good that it is going to happen in India too.
So what gives you confidence to partner a Hindi movie like Dhoom 3?
India has some specific challenges unique to it and one of them is that the 90 percent of movies seen by the public is Bollywood centric. So we realised that in order to succeed in India, we need to have a balance of Hollywood films and local content.
Now, we had a dilemma, because you cant really afford it always. We take a movie and convert it into IMAX print, which costs us around $1-1.5 million to do that. So unlessyou have enough theatres open, the economics really don't work.
So we wait to get to the point where we can have the mix of Hollywood and local content. Again to use China as an example, we did first film in China three years ago and this year we are doing five.
But how does the economics work now for India?
It works now for two reasons, one by the time Dhoom 3 releases, we will have 10-15 theatres opened in India. And also, we can export that film to some of our other territories. We have presence in Malaysia, Indonesia, UK, US, Thailand, and other countries where there is an appetite for the Indian movies.
But certainly, IMAX will not have 90% Bollywood and 10% Hollywood. As we are about premium movie experience and we charge a premium. We may have upto 60-65% Hollywood and 35% Bollywood movies after a while.
So how is the business model work. Do you take the film and convert it or help the studios to convert it in IMAX print?
There are different models. Typically, they film it is 35 mm digital and we take our proprietary system, DMR, and we blow the image and fill in the missing content. We incur the cost of !1-1.5 million to convert it into IMAX print and in exchange, we get 12.5% of the IMAX gross box office revenue from the studio.
The other thing that we sometimes do is that we lease our cameras to film in IMAX print. But it is not happening in Dhoom 3's case. But overtime I would like to see Bollywood films getting shot with our cameras.
Why did you not select Adlabs (Now Big Cinema) and partner with PVR, when you already have one IMAX in Mumbai with them?
We look for people who are committed to marketing as we ourselves are not in India. They have to have a right kind of theatre infrastructure, they have to have a certain foot traffic and we generally partner with people who are not just doing one theatre but are committed for a significant roll out. PVR (five theatre deal – 2 in Bangalore, 1 in Mumbai and 2 in Delhi) and SPI Cinemas (four theatres) both fits in perfectly.
We are opening one more in Mumbai in Phoenix Mills and four in Chennai and two in Hyderabad.
But why not with Adlabs?
We talked with Adlabs, which is now owned by Reliance, but they are sorting out their strategy now on where to go. I have reason to hope that they will figure out and we will work together in future.
In many countries you follow joint venture model and not the licencing model. Will you consider it here in India too?
I believe in 5 years from now, we would be able to follow that model in India too. In China, we launched 15 theatres with licensing model, for 75 we followed JV model. So somewhere down the line, here in India also, we will.
http://www.business-standard.com/india/news/we-have-seenpatternrapid-expansion-after-hitting-critical-mass-richard-l-gelford/197609/on
Comments
Post a Comment