Abu Dhabi: Imax Corporation, which is known for giant theatre screens, is planning to invest $10 to 25 million (Dh36.7 to 91.2 million) in the region in the next three years.

The corporation would increase the number of theatres from fifteen to thirty, according to Richard Gelfond, its chief executive officer.

“By 2017, we would double our presence in the region and have about thirty theatres. It is a huge market,” said Gelfond while speaking to Gulf News in an exclusive interview in Abu Dhabi. He was in the city as part of the Abu Dhabi Media Summit.

His plans include opening a theatre in Abu Dhabi and in Bahrain, Qatar, Oman, Lebanon, Jordan and Kuwait.

In Dubai, they have one and another one is scheduled to open in early 2016. The company doesn’t have anything in Abu Dhabi and Gelfond says the Emirate is a priority for them.

“We had discussions with our existing partners and potential partners specifically on Abu Dhabi. I would be surprised if we don’t have one or more theatres open in Abu Dhabi in the coming years. It has a high movie going population and has the potential to become a successful market.”

The company has a presence in sixty countries. In china it grew from thirteen theatres in 2010 to 200 in 2014. It is planning to open another 250. “China will be the largest market with 450 theatres over the years, surpassing North America.”

In recent times, Imax is also trying to increase its footprint in Europe including in Scandinavia, Germany and the United Kingdom. The company has 34 theatres in the UK and is trying to increase the number to 60.

The company’s recent collaboration has been the Hollywood blockbuster Interstellar. The movie was shot using Imax cameras.

Long-term strategy

Gelfond says in China they’ve been doing 10 and 20 per cent of whole box office, in Russia 12 or 13 per cent of the box office, in the UK 17 per cent and in North America 25 per cent. “On a small percentage of the screens, we are doing a large percentage of the box office.”

The long-term strategy of the company is focused on innovation. In the last three years it has spent $50 million in developing Imax lasers to increase the brightness of images on the larger screen. The technology will be used for the first time in Mall of Qatar in 2016.

Imax is also trying to build high end Imax home theatre that would show content very close to its release date. “We are creating an experience in the home that is superior to any other home experience. It would boost cinema experience in countries like Saudi Arabia where there is no out of home cinema.”

On acquisitions and mergers, Gelfond said the company’s preference is to grow internally. “We’ve done a small acquisition, we bought a small camera company. We do something small rather than do larger.”

Among the films that have used Imax technology to shot in the region are Fast and Furious seven, Mission Impossible four, Star Wars. Mission Impossible was shot in Dubai and Star Wars was partly filmed in Abu Dhabi.

In the Middle East, Gelfond says they would provide some Bollywood as well as some Hollywood content and over time hope to have relationship with some of the local studios to produce some of the content appropriate for Imax.

The entertainment company which is headquartered in New York, Toronto and Los Angeles reported third quarter revenues of $60.7 million. It has 880 Imax theatres in 60 countries.