Chapter 1791 Hidden Worries

Next to the office building of Disney headquarters, there is an 8-story office building.

It doesn't seem to match the gorgeous and dreamy style of Disney, but no one in the entertainment industry dares to underestimate this simple office building.

Because it is the headquarters of the North American branch of Kirin Group, and Tang Shuxuan, the female president who controls one-third of the power of North American entertainment, works here.

Although Disney, United Artists Film Company, ABC News Network, Digital Domain, etc. are all operated independently, the instructions issued from here are more effective than what their presidents say.

no way.

Kirin Group is a private company, so naturally the boss and the people entrusted by the boss have the final say.

Because this is the North American center of the Kirin Group, people from various branches come here for meetings from time to time.

Sitting here in the small conference room today are the three giants of IMAX who came here from Canada.

The person meeting with them was not Tang Shuxuan, but the big boss Yin Jun.

Unconsciously, four and a half years have passed since Yin Jun officially acquired IMAX.

In the past four and a half years, IMAX has experienced unexpected rapid development, which was expected by the founders of their company, but also somewhat unexpected.

Unsurprisingly, Yin Jun owns two major film companies, so he can naturally promote IMAX giant screen technology.

But what is unexpected is that giant screen technology has developed so rapidly.

As of December 1984, IMAX giant-screen theaters already have more than 1,000 screening halls, of which only 100 are operated by Kirin Cinema Line itself, and the rest are all from franchises.

The equipment for the giant screen theater is really not cheap.

How much does a set of equipment for a traditional cinema cost?

Including the player, screen, and even the decoration of the screening room, a small hall with 150 people can cost about US$300,000 to US$800,000 depending on the city and location.

But a set of playback equipment for a giant-screen theater is worth US$8 million, and it has not yet been reduced.

Then there are the film prints needed to project the film.

In the beginning, a giant-screen film copy cost 80,000 US dollars. For more than a year, it basically lost money every day.

It was at the beginning of last year that the price of a copy dropped to US$60,000.

And how much does a 90-minute 35mm film print cost for a regular screen? But it’s up to $1,500.

One giant-screen copy is equivalent to thirty or forty ordinary copies.

The cost of showing a movie in 100 Kirin Cinemas' giant-screen theaters is equivalent to the cost of film copies shown in 3,000 to 4,000 ordinary movie theaters!

But your ticket price definitely cannot be thirty or forty times the ordinary ticket price, otherwise idiots would come to see your movie, even if the giant-screen movie has a jaw-dropping effect.

Therefore, a movie ticket in a giant-screen theater is only 20 US dollars during the most expensive prime time period, which is only 8-10 times the ordinary ticket price.

The cost difference is so big, but the price difference cannot be reflected in the ticket price. Moreover, with such expensive movie tickets, movie fans who go to watch ordinary movies will naturally make more careful choices and will not watch all the movies in the giant screen version. of.

In the beginning, only Kirin Films, Disney, and United Artists were making giant-screen movies. More than a year later, other companies started converting their own films into giant-screen versions.

There were only a few movies, and the tickets were very expensive, so it was such a loss that the North American branch of the Kirin Group was in tears.

There is no need to include other costs of buying land to build an IMAX theater, otherwise it will be more expensive and you will lose more!

There is nothing you can do if you lose money.

But everyone is willing to invest such a huge amount of money in the early stage, just to wait for an era of explosion. This cannot but be said that they have strong confidence in giant-screen movies.

For example, in March this year, when "Mission: Impossible" opened, there were already more than 800 giant screens.

Although the attendance rate was not high at the beginning because the protagonist was an Asian, after the word-of-mouth spread, the attendance rate during the prime time period of the giant screen theater was above 85% for two consecutive weeks, with 60% in the morning and afternoon. % attendance rate, which is a bit scary.

This also excites those theater operators who have chosen giant-screen screening rooms.

With a ticket costing 15-20 US dollars, they made a lot of money!

Although the investment is large, you can still earn a lot every time!

Now in 1984, there are already more than 20 movies filmed and remastered in IMAX in a year, which are enough for theaters to play. Unlike in previous years, Kirin Cinemas still have to be free from time to time. It's a waste of time.

Next year, in 2085, it is confirmed that the number of movies to be screened in the giant screen auditorium will exceed 40.

With more choices, it will be possible to eliminate the confusion of bad movies to a large extent, which will be more conducive to the development of giant-screen movies.

Also affected by this good news, IMAX has now received applications for the installation of more than 600 giant screens and equipment.

If we follow normal estimates, it will not be a problem to reach 2,000 giant-screen theaters before the end of next year.

There is actually another important reason that has contributed to the rapid development of giant-screen screening rooms in the past two years.

That is at the beginning of this year, IMAX has overcome technical factors, and the production base is in Xiangjiang where labor is very cheap, so the selling price of a copy has dropped to 20,000 US dollars!

Four years ago, this price was US$80,000!

Suddenly there was such a huge drop, and of course those budget-conscious theater operators rushed forward in droves. Only then did more than 800 giant screens appear at the same time in March. ——This number is not just for North America, it is the number of theater chains in various countries combined, which proves that IMAX has become more and more popular.

Thinking back on all this, the three IMAX giants couldn't help but sigh.

If they had rejected Yin Jun's acquisition, they would definitely not have such a bright future!

At least it won’t develop so fast or so well!

Yin Jun also keeps his word. Not only does he invest 20 million US dollars in technology research and development every year, he also does not dilute their shares.

When IMAX equipment and screens are sold, they still determine the profit to be paid, and basically do not interfere with their operations.

Companies in Europe and the United States like bosses like this, so overall, the two parties have a very pleasant cooperation.

Today Yin Jun asked them to come over, and the three of them first expressed their gratitude and respect to Yin Jun.

Seeing this, the young man smiled and shook his head, "No need to thank me, I should thank you! If it weren't for such shocking giant screen technology, how could the movies we saw be so good?"

Company president Richard Gelfon also smiled, "It is our honor to be able to showcase such good technology to benefit movie fans!"

"According to the current development speed, in three years, our IMAX giant screen will definitely be able to exceed 3,000 pictures!" Robert Cole, the company's director of operations, also said excitedly, "This is something we never dreamed of."

"This number is too optimistic."

Yin Jun disagreed with this view, "One of the reasons why I called you here today is about the number of giant screen screening halls... You must prepare yourself for the fact that in the next five years, giant screen screening halls will continue to close down, and the number of users will continue to increase." Prepare for a sharp decline.”

"ah?"

The three of them were all shocked and couldn't believe what they heard.

The situation is obviously very good now, so why does the boss sound so grim?

If the person speaking was not Yin Jun, they would definitely be dismissive.

But the person who said this happened to be someone who knew very well about IMAX technology, was a film and television tycoon, and was recognized as a genius boss, so they had to be cautious.

Besides, the IMAX company still belongs to Yin Jun, so he definitely has no reason to scare himself.

Yin Jun's words are not exaggerated at all.

In the previous life, in 2015, the number of giant screens in the world, including those other than IMAX, totaled only 1,500!

At that time, there were already Marvel hero movies and Transformers movies!

Dozens of comic characters have appeared on the screen with the help of special effects technology. The giant screen is just the right time. It is the best era!

Of course, in the next five years, as hero movies continue to expand their lineups and China's film market continues to expand, it is reasonable that the number of giant screens worldwide will reach 5,000 in 2020.

But now it’s 1984, 35 years away from that time!

At least with the current technology, within ten or eight years, it will definitely not be possible to do the special effects of "Avengers", "Spider-Man", "Transformers", etc. so well.

So what does the 2,000 IMAX giant screen represent?

It must be a huge waste!

Rao Shi Qilin Group already shoots and re-produces more than a dozen giant-screen versions of movies every year, but it cannot meet the needs of so many giant-screen theaters.

Audiences are not stupid. Only when the content is good enough and cannot be compared to ordinary movie theaters will they be willing to watch giant-screen movies.

It’s been a year and a half now, but we still can’t tell that theater operators can still support it.

But if there is a loss every year and there is no way to get a return on the huge upfront investment cost, do you think they will close these expensive giant-screen screening rooms and convert them to ordinary screening rooms?

I am very sure of that!

At that time, it will be a huge blow to IMAX!

Don't think this won't happen.

Many people don't know that there was actually a 3D movie boom in the 1970s.

In those few years, hundreds of 3D movies appeared on movie screens.

However, due to poor technology and insufficient quality of film content, this craze dissipated in just a few years.

Theater operators, including film companies, have suffered huge losses, and many companies have even fallen into bankruptcy as a result.

Look at it now, isn’t it the same as it was then?

People are flocking to build giant-screen theaters and produce giant-screen movie versions, thinking they can make a lot of money!

Fortunately, there is the technology to convert the IMAX version, otherwise if they were all shot with 70mm film, the film money alone would make them cry to death!

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