As the city teemed with movie stars and celebrity gossip during the Toronto International Film Festival last fall, two powerbrokers of the industry met over dinner to discuss one of Hollywood's most closely guarded secrets: the filming of what may be the biggest movie of all time.
On one side of the table was Ellis Jacob, the no-nonsense chief executive officer of Cineplex Entertainment LP, Canada's dominant movie theatre chain, which owns the majority of screens from Quebec to Vancouver Island.
Across from him sat James Cameron, the Ontario-born director behind some of the most bankable films in history, including Aliens , Terminator and – of course – Titanic , the highest-grossing movie ever made.
Mr. Cameron's latest project, the sci-fi thriller Avatar, is costing upwards of $300-million (U.S.). The futuristic epic that mixes animation, live-action scenes and the latest in computer graphics will be the most expensive movie in history when it opens in December.
Mr. Jacob, a numbers guy whose job is to pack theatres for investors in the Cineplex Galaxy Income Fund CGX.UN-T , couldn't help but ask the billion-dollar question: Is this going to work? Sure Avatar was big, but can it deliver on the massive hype and unprecedented budget?
The director was undaunted: “You're never going to see anything like this,” Mr. Jacob recalls being told.
It was enough for him. If it had been anyone other than the man who made Titanic , the CEO might have been worried.
“This guy doesn't make bad movies,” Mr. Jacob said in an interview. “He's one of the few guys who basically tries to create new ways of seeing things. I think it's going to be a massive movie.”
The plans behind Avatar are even more grand than the price tag implies. It's not just a movie, it's a blueprint Mr. Cameron has drawn up to redefine the film industry itself.
At a time when theatres are fighting to defend their market share against the Internet and DVD sales, the industry is turning to three-dimensional films as the next frontier in its quest for audiences because the 3-D experience is difficult to replicate.
Indeed, three-dimensional films are enjoying a renaissance. At least 13 new 3-D titles will hit cinemas in 2009, the most since the 1950s heyday when campy horror flicks and cardboard 3-D glasses were all the rage. Mr. Cameron wants Avatar to define the second coming of 3-D, a trend spurred by new technology that can produce higher-quality films.
While other 3-D titles such as Monsters vs. Aliens, Up and Toy Story 3-D are aimed at children, he wants Avatar to transcend demographics and take modern 3-D into the mainstream.
Unlike the films of the 1950s, where moviegoers often complained of queasiness or blurriness unless they sat directly in the centre of the theatre, the new technology is sharper and much more convincing.
In spite of the added cost, most of the theatre industry in North America is getting behind the idea. Of the 1,329 screens Cineplex owns in Canada, 124 are now showing 3-D movies.
This expansion comes at a precarious time for the movie business. Though Cineplex saw its attendance rise 9 per cent last quarter to 16 million, theatre chains in the U.S. are seeing ticket sales slump and profit margins squeezed in a recession. As the dominant player in Canada, Cineplex holds a near-monopoly in some markets, which helps, but the advancement of home theatres is keeping many consumers at home.
The sudden return of 3-D over the past few years is one way the movie business is innovating to compete. But this is not necessarily a new script. Though 2009 is being dubbed “The Year of 3-D” in some quarters, crude versions of three-dimensional films have been around almost as long as movies themselves.
