September 2, 2010--Pioneering giant screen film producer/director Greg MacGillivray has joined an elite club of filmmakers whose films have cumulatively earned more than $1 billion in ticket sales at the worldwide box office. Approximately 100 feature filmmakers have attained this level of box office success in the history of cinema according to industry trackers, but MacGillivray is the first documentary filmmaker to join the group, a benchmark celebrated by the entertainment industry’s trade journal, Daily Variety, in a special feature now hitting newsstands.
September 2, 2010--As August came to a scorching close, attendance numbers at the Ontario Science Centre also set a new high, with 330,605 visitors during July and August. This is a 13 per cent increase over last year’s attendance for the two months, making it the busiest summer in 11 years. At 948,140 visitors, attendance for the year to date is up 112,290 and is already approaching the million visitor mark.
September 1, 2010--The International 3D Society announced today that IMAX, RealD, and Texas Instruments DLP Cinema will each be honored with a Century Award for their historical achievement at the Stereoscopic 3D Technology Awards scheduled for October 19, 2010, at 7pm at the Mann’s Chinese Theatre.
August 31, 2010--National Geographic Entertainment’s Cinema Ventures (NGCV) group has acquired the film Flying Monsters 3D, a new adventure from award-winning Atlantic Productions in association with Sky 3D. The film uses 3D and CGI technology to immerse audiences in a prehistoric world inhabited by pterosaurs, flying vertebrates with a wingspan of up to 45 feet that lived alongside dinosaurs. Produced by filmmaker Anthony Geffen and narrated by veteran filmmaker and renowned naturalist Sir David Attenborough, the film is scheduled for launch around the world in 2011.
August 31, 2010--The Blue Ocean Film Festival, presented by Monterey Bay Aquarium, has announced the winners of its 2010 awards for top cinematic works and ocean conservation, with two giant screen films receiving awards. The Ultimate Wave Tahiti (The Stephen Low Company, K2 Communications) received the award for Best Ocean Sports Film. Under the Sea 3D (Howard Hall Productions, IMAX Corporation, Warner Bros.) received the Special Jury Award. The awards were presented on Saturday, August 28, at the Golden State Theater.
August 31, 2010--IMAX Corporation today announced an agreement with Cinema City International, the largest exhibitor in Eastern Europe and long-standing operator of IMAX theaters in the region, to install two new digital IMAX theater systems in Israel, which are currently anticipated to open in 2011. As part of the deal, Cinema City also committed to upgrading all eight of its existing film-based IMAX locations with IMAX's digital projection technology, following the success of its first IMAX digital upgrade in Lodz, Poland, earlier this year. Five of these locations are scheduled to be upgraded this year, and the remaining three upgrades are to be completed in 2011. The deal brings the total number of digital IMAX theater systems operated by Cinema City to 11 and the total number of IMAX theaters expected to be in operation in Europe and Israel by 2012 to more than 80. The company's announced number of theater systems signings year-to-date has increased to 128 worldwide, which compares to 35 system signings in all of 2009.
August 30, 2010--IMAX Corporation today announced that internationally acclaimed director John Woo and producer Terence Chang's next film, the action epic Flying Tigers, is set to be digitally re-mastered into The IMAX Experience(R). Woo and Chang are the director/producer team behind Mission Impossible II; Face/Off: Red Cliff 1 & 2, and many other international blockbusters. Upon being green lit for production, the film would mark an important new filmmaker relationship for IMAX and would be the second announced Chinese film to be released in IMAX's format. Flying Tigers will be a Hollywood-China joint production with China Film Group as the lead Chinese financier, and shooting is expected to begin in spring 2011.
August 25, 2010--Following the record-breaking IMAX 3D release of the highest grossing movie of all-time, IMAX Corporation and Twentieth Century Fox today announced that Avatar: Special Edition will open in 175 IMAX theaters worldwide--125 domestic and 50 international locations--on August 27, 2010, simultaneously with the motion picture's re-release in conventional theaters. This enhanced release will feature approximately nine additional minutes of never-before-seen footage and offers fans the opportunity to see it in IMAX theaters for a limited time only.
August 24, 2010--Giant Screen Films (GSF) and D3D Cinema (D3D) are pleased to announce the hiring of industry veteran Derek Threinen as Senior Director of Film Distribution and Business Development, effective September 7, 2010. For GSF, Threinen will lead distribution efforts in North America for its growing library of giant screen and digital 3D films produced by GSF and its sister company, D3D Cinema. For D3D, Threinen will play a lead role within the giant screen network in spearheading the upcoming conversion of film-based 15/70 theaters over to digital 3D projection systems.