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IMAX® POSTS RECORD DECEMBER OPENING BOX OFFICE RESULTS WITH MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE – GHOST PROTOCOL

Posted Tuesday, December 20th, 2011 - Comments Off on IMAX® POSTS RECORD DECEMBER OPENING BOX OFFICE RESULTS WITH MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE – GHOST PROTOCOL
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Film Breaks Record Global and Domestic Results for December Grossing $14 Million Globally and $10.5 Million Domestically Over Opening Weekend in IMAX Early Release Window

Los Angeles – Dec. 20, 2011 – IMAX Corporation (NYSE:IMAX; TSX:IMX) and Paramount Pictures today announced that Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol The IMAX Experience, earned approximately $14 million at the box office in IMAX® theatres worldwide during its opening weekend. Domestically, the film generated $10.5 million on 300 IMAX screens, for an IMAX per-screen average of $35,000. Internationally, it generated $3.4 million on 89 IMAX screens, for an IMAX per-screen average of $38,200. The film surpassed the previous December opening box office records set by Tron: Legacy. Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol The IMAX Experience is set to open on 112 additional IMAX® theatres in various territories, including China and the UK.

“Paramount leveraged an early release in IMAX as a key component of its marketing strategy for this film and based on this promising start we are enthusiastic that this approach will deliver,” said IMAX CEO Richard L. Gelfond. “Not only were the global IMAX grosses strong, but we were extremely effective in generating positive reviews, word-of-mouth and substantial social media buzz that we expect will continue to build strong demand for the film going into its wide release on Wednesday. We’re very grateful that we could repay Paramount’s confidence in IMAX by supporting the overall success of this incredible film and by playing a key strategic role in making this film an event that simply can’t be missed.”

“The one-two punch of The IMAX Experience coupled with the passionate filmmaking of Brad Bird, JJ Abrams and Tom Cruise is what differentiates this film from the rest of the pack,” said Greg Foster, Chairman and President, IMAX Filmed Entertainment. “The more than 30 percent uptick in box office from Friday to Saturday points to the growing momentum of the movie heading into its official opening. Given that this film set December records both domestically and globally for IMAX also shows that whether in 2D or 3D, audiences are drawn to a strong movie that features the IMAX DNA.”

The IMAX release of this fourth installment of Mission: Impossible features approximately 30 minutes of scenes filmed with IMAX cameras. Exclusively in IMAX, these sequences expand to fill the entire screen, and further immerse the audience in the explosive action and vast scope of the film. One featured sequence includes the unbelievable stunt performed by Tom Cruise as he scaled the world’s tallest building, the Burj Khalifa Tower in Dubai, providing an up-close, you-are-there experience as only IMAX can.

The IMAX release of Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol has been digitally re-mastered into the image and sound quality of The IMAX Experience® with proprietary IMAX DMR® (Digital Re-mastering) technology. The crystal-clear images coupled with IMAX’s customized theatre geometry and powerful digital audio create a unique environment that will make audiences feel as if they are in the movie.

About Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol
The IMF is shut down when it’s implicated in the bombing of the Kremlin, causing Ethan Hunt and his
new team to go rogue to clear their organization’s name. No help, no contact, off the grid. Mission:
Impossible – Ghost Protocol is directed by Brad Bird, in his live action film debut, and written by Josh
Appelbaum & Andre Nemec and Christopher McQuarrie. Cruise, who produces the Mission: Impossible
films, is joined by producers J.J. Abrams and Bryan Burk. The film will be co-financed by Skydance
Productions. Jeffrey Chernov, David Ellison, Paul Schwake and Dana Goldberg are the executive producers.

About Paramount Pictures Corporation
Paramount Pictures Corporation (PPC), a global producer and distributor of filmed entertainment, is a unit of Viacom (NASDAQ: VIA, VIAB), a leading content company with prominent and respected film, television and digital entertainment brands. Paramount controls a collection of some of the most powerful brands in filmed entertainment, including Paramount Pictures, Paramount Animation, Paramount Vantage, Paramount Classics, Insurge Pictures, MTV Films, and Nickelodeon Movies. PPC operations also include Paramount Famous Productions, Paramount Home Media Distribution, Paramount Pictures International, Paramount Licensing Inc., and Paramount Studio Group.

About IMAX Corporation
IMAX Corporation is one of the world’s leading entertainment and technology companies, specializing in the creation and delivery of premium, awe-inspiring entertainment experiences. With a growing suite of cutting-edge motion picture and sound technologies, and a globally recognized entertainment brand, IMAX is singularly situated at the convergence of the entertainment industry, innovation and the digital media world. The industry’s top filmmakers and studios are utilizing IMAX theatres to connect with audiences in extraordinary ways, and as such, the IMAX network is among the most important and successful theatrical distribution platforms for major event films around the globe. The Company’s new digital projection and sound systems – combined with a growing blockbuster film slate – are fueling the rapid expansion of the IMAX network in established markets such as North America, Western Europe, and Japan, as well as emerging markets such as China and Russia. IMAX theaters deliver the world’s best cinematic presentations using proprietary IMAX®, IMAX 3D®, and IMAX DMR® (Digital Re-Mastering) technologies. IMAX DMR enables virtually any motion picture to be transformed into the unparalleled image and sound quality of The IMAX Experience®.

IMAX is headquartered in New York, Toronto and Los Angeles, with offices in London, Tokyo, Shanghai and Beijing. As of September 30, 2011, there were 583 IMAX theatres (441 commercial multiplex, 23 commercial destination and 119 institutional) operating in 48 countries.

IMAX®, IMAX® 3D, IMAX DMR®, Experience It In IMAX®, An IMAX 3D Experience® and The IMAX Experience® are trademarks of IMAX Corporation. More information about the Company can be found at www.imax.com. You may also connect with IMAX on Facebook (www.facebook.com/imax), Twitter (www.twitter.com/imax) and YouTube (www.youtube.com/imaxmovies).

This press release contains forward looking statements that are based on IMAX management’s assumptions and existing information and involve certain risks and uncertainties which could cause actual results to differ materially from future results expressed or implied by such forward looking statements. Important factors that could affect these statements include, but are not limited to, general economic, market or business conditions, including the length and severity of the current economic downturn, the opportunities that may be presented to and pursued by IMAX, the performance of IMAX DMR films, conditions in the in-home and out-of home entertainment industries, the signing of theatre system agreements, changes and developments in the commercial exhibition industry, the failure to convert theatre system backlog into revenue, new business initiatives, investments and operations in foreign jurisdictions, foreign currency fluctuations and IMAX’s prior restatements and the related litigation. These factors and other risks and uncertainties are discussed in the Company’s most recent Annual Report on Form 10-K and most recent Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q.

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It shows how out of it I was in trying to be in it, acknowledging that I was out of it to myself, and then thinking, “Okay, how do I stop being out of it? Well, I get some legitimate illogical narrative ideas” — some novel, you know?

So I decided on three writers that I might be able to option their material and get some producer, or myself as producer, and then get some writer to do a screenplay on it, and maybe make a movie.

And so the three projects were “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep,” “Naked Lunch” and a collection of Bukowski. Which, in 1975, forget it — I mean, that was nuts. Hollywood would not touch any of that, but I was looking for something commercial, and I thought that all of these things were coming.

There would be no Blade Runner if there was no Ray Bradbury. I couldn’t find Philip K. Dick. His agent didn’t even know where he was. And so I gave up.

I was walking down the street and I ran into Bradbury — he directed a play that I was going to do as an actor, so we know each other, but he yelled “hi” — and I’d forgot who he was.

So at my girlfriend Barbara Hershey’s urging — I was with her at that moment — she said, “Talk to him! That guy really wants to talk to you,” and I said “No, fuck him,” and keep walking.

But then I did, and then I realized who it was, and I thought, “Wait, he’s in that realm, maybe he knows Philip K. Dick.” I said, “You know a guy named—” “Yeah, sure — you want his phone number?”

My friend paid my rent for a year while I wrote, because it turned out we couldn’t get a writer. My friends kept on me about, well, if you can’t get a writer, then you write.”
~ Hampton Fancher

“That was the most disappointing thing to me in how this thing was played. Is that I’m on the phone with you now, after all that’s been said, and the fundamental distinction between what James is dealing with in these other cases is not actually brought to the fore. The fundamental difference is that James Franco didn’t seek to use his position to have sex with anyone. There’s not a case of that. He wasn’t using his position or status to try to solicit a sexual favor from anyone. If he had — if that were what the accusation involved — the show would not have gone on. We would have folded up shop and we would have not completed the show. Because then it would have been the same as Harvey Weinstein, or Les Moonves, or any of these cases that are fundamental to this new paradigm. Did you not notice that? Why did you not notice that? Is that not something notable to say, journalistically? Because nobody could find the voice to say it. I’m not just being rhetorical. Why is it that you and the other critics, none of you could find the voice to say, “You know, it’s not this, it’s that”? Because — let me go on and speak further to this. If you go back to the L.A. Times piece, that’s what it lacked. That’s what they were not able to deliver. The one example in the five that involved an issue of a sexual act was between James and a woman he was dating, who he was not working with. There was no professional dynamic in any capacity.

~ David Simon