Some of the largest cinema exhibitors in the US – namely Cinemark, Regal and Marcus – are reportedly having preliminary talks to increase marketing their “premium large-format” cinemas according to a new report at Bloomberg.
The aim of this new promotional push is to compete with the growing influence of IMAX screens both within the movie industry and the public at large. Though only having several hundred screens in the U.S., IMAX box-office revenue is an important part of major titles these days.
The talks presently have been about planning ‘shared standards’ for their largest non-IMAX screens with options being considered including a united branding and/or designation for their premium screens.
The trouble is that right now there’s confusion over branding of cinema screens these days between official ones – IMAX, Dolby Cinema, 4DX, ScreenX, RPX, XD, MT-X, Real D 3D etc. – and unofficial ones (eg. LieMAX). Adding another to the mix will potentially cause more confusion.
The chains have also reportedly discussed among themselves the possibility of asking studios to help market any new brand they might adopt. AMC, the largest chain and biggest operator of IMAX screens in the US, isn’t participating in the deliberations.
Several factors have reportedly led to this push, including film posters with prominent IMAX branding even for cinemas without IMAX, and the deal Netflix made with IMAX to release Greta Gerwig’s “The Chronicles of Narnia” exclusively in IMAX cinemas late next year.
That film is proving a point of contention with Regal’s CEO saying they won’t commit to playing the film on their IMAX screens, saying “two weeks is too short a period to draw a significant number of moviegoers”. AMC IMAX however is planning to show the film.
Vue Entertainment, Europe’s largest independent cinema chain, debuted a large-screen format called Epic earlier this month in part due to the Netflix-IMAX deal.