IMAX: Hornet has Some Sting

January 20, 2011

There were a trio of news items relating to IMAX this past week, starting with box office numbers for The Green Hornet, which were good, but not great. The film managed $3.0 million on 173 screens over four days, which gave it a per screen average significantly higher than in regular theaters, but not by as much as some other releases. I think this was because it was a better than expected marginal release. There were likely two groups of people who were on the fence about this movie: those that wanted to see it, but weren't willing to pay IMAX prices, and those who wanted to see it, but were willing to wait for the home market. Better than expected reviews are more likely to change the minds of the latter group than the former, resulting in a higher than expected overall box office, but not as much change in IMAX. That said, this is still a good result, especially for this time of year.

Meanwhile it was announced that Tron: Legacy hit $50 million worldwide from $34.7 million domestically and $16.7 million internationally. This past weekend it earned $1.2 million on 24 IMAX screens in China, while it has yet to open in Germany and France.

Finally, it was announced that Paramount will be releasing four of the 2011 tent-pole titles on the IMAX format. These are Super 8, Transformers, Tintin, and the latest Mission: Impossible.


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Filed under: IMAX, The Green Hornet, Transformers: Dark of the Moon, Tron: Legacy, The Adventures of Tintin, Mission: Impossible—Ghost Protocol, Super 8