IMAX’s theatre network is among the most successful theatrical distribution platforms for major Hollywood films globally. Compared with two screens a month ago, IMAX is slated to have about 14 theatres in India by the end of next year. It has partnered Yash Raj Films for Dhoom 3, its maiden Bollywood venture. Chief executive Richard L Gelfond, in an interview with Gaurav Laghate, explains why IMAX is upbeat about India. Edited excerpts:
Recently, along with PVR, you opened the IMAX theatre in Bangalore. How many theatres do you plan to open in India?
It’s a very good time to be in India. Today, we are present in 52 countries, and my experience says once we hit critical mass, expansion is very rapid. Before we opened the theatre in Bangalore a month ago, we had just two theatres in India. By March, we would have seven screens and by end of next year, we would have 10-15 screens in the country.
To give you an analogy, when Avatar opened in 2009, we had only 13 theatres in China. Now, we have about a 100. And, we would have 150 more in a couple of years. When Life of Pi opened last week, 20 per cent of the film’s box-office revenue from China came from IMAX.
Two years ago, we had four to five theatres in England. Now, we have 25. We have seen this ‘once you reach the critical mass, you grow very rapidly pattern’ worldwide. I feel it would happen in India, too.
What gives you the confidence to partner a Hindi movie like Dhoom 3?
India has some challenges unique to it. One of these is 90 per cent of the movies seen by the masses is Bollywood-centric. So, we realised to succeed in India, we need to have a balance of Hollywood films and local content.
We were in a dilemma, because you can’t really afford it always. We take a movie and convert it into IMAX print, which costs us $1-1.5 million. So, unless you have enough theatres, the economics don’t really work. We have to wait to reach a point where we can have a mix of Hollywood and local content. Again, to cite China’s example, our first film in China was three years ago. This year, the number has risen to five.
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Now, how do the economics for India work?
It works for two reasons. First, by the time Dhoom 3 is released, we would have opened 10-15 theatres in India. Second, we can export that film to a few of our other regions — Malaysia, Indonesia, the UK, the US, Thailand and to countries where there is an appetite for Indian films.
However, IMAX would certainly not have a mix of 90 per cent Bollywood films and 10 per cent Hollywood movies. We are about a premium movie experience; we charge a premium. After a while, we may have a mix of 60-65 per cent Hollywood films and 35 per cent Bollywood movies.
How does your business model work? Do you convert a film or help studios convert it to IMAX print?
There are different models. Typically, a movie is filmed in a 35-mm digital mode. Through our proprietary system DMR, we blow the image and fill in the missing content. We incur a cost of $1-1.5 million to convert it into IMAX print. In return, we get 12.5 per cent of the IMAX gross box-office revenue from studios.
Sometimes, we lease our cameras to film something in IMAX print. But this is not the case with Dhoom 3. In time, I would like to see Bollywood films being shot using our cameras.
Why did you partner PVR, not Adlabs (now Big Cinemas), given you already have an IMAX in Mumbai with Adlabs?
As we aren’t marketing in India, we seek people committed to marketing. They have to have the right theatre infrastructure and certain foot traffic. We generally partner people who don’t have just one theatre, but are committed to a significant roll-out. PVR (a five-theatre deal---two in Bangalore, one in Mumbai and two in Delhi) and SPI Cinemas (four theatres) both fit perfectly.
We are opening another theatre in Mumbai, in Phoenix Mills, four in Chennai and two in Hyderabad.
Why aren’t you partnering Adlabs?
We talked with Adlabs, now owned by Reliance. But now, they are sorting their strategy on where to go. I have reason to hope they would figure it and we would work together in the future.
In many countries, you follow a joint-venture model, not the licensing model. Would you consider the joint-venture model in India?
I believe in five years, we would be able to follow that model in India, too. In China, we launched 15 theatres through the licensing model. For 75, we followed the joint-venture model. So, somewhere down the line, in India too, we would.