"Everest"

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Friday, November 06, 1998 4:19:29 PM EST

From Correspondent Dennis Michael

HOLLYWOOD (CNN) -- It's the buzz of the movie industry. IMAX film technology is not only impressive in size -- it's impressive in box office numbers.

The IMAX production "Everest" is a high point for the special-venue moviemaker, a hit that may change everything for the company. "Everest," a documentary of a deadly climb to the world's highest peak, spent several weeks at number one on the exclusive exhibition charts, and is still in the top 20 in the overall box office stats.

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By IMAX standards, it's an unqualified blockbuster. Producer Greg MacGillivray spent $2 million to promote the special event film the way the big studios do, and saw increases in the box from 20 to 45 percent at every theater.

"What this proved to us is that there is a vast audience out there that actually wants this experience on the giant screen," MacGillivray says. "They just haven't been hearing about it in the past."

These are big times for a company that has made bigness a way of life. The IMAX film frame is 10 times bigger than the ordinary movie. It's projected on a screen that is nine stories tall, from a projector that's the size of a compact car. The result is a startlingly clear, stable and -- let's face it -- big image.

"You feel like you're in the space with the characters that are playing in the film," says Brett Leonard, director of "T-Rex: Back to the Cretaceous," which was made in cutting-edge IMAX 3D.

Patrons use special goggles to see the IMAX 3D effect

There are now nearly 180 IMAX theatres around the world, including several in the 3D format, a niche that is growing in popularity among IMAX aficionados. Along with Leonard's "T-Rex," Jean-Jacques Annaud directed "Wings of Courage" in IMAX 3D. And the Rolling Stones have been made even larger than life by IMAX, though not the 3D format, in "The Rolling Stones: Live At the Max."

But the biggest star on the biggest screen is IMAX itself.

"IMAX is also a brand, so we don't have to pay the same kind of talent that Hollywood has to pay, which is really a huge percentage of the costs," says Rich Gelfond, president of IMAX. "Once you take those costs down and you look at just making the film with the world around you as the talent, you get into much more manageable budget ranges. A typical two-dimensional film at IMAX is about $5 million; a typical 3D film at IMAX is about $10 million."

With that kind of budget, there's plenty of room for IMAX to grow.