Imax Theaters Refuse Fantasia 2000

By Jack December 29, 1999 12:52 PM

Several Imax theaters, most of which are located in or near museums or science centers, have refused to agree to Disney's terms for the screening of Fantasia 2000, the Associated Press reported Tuesday.?The wire service said that Imax theaters in Boston, Cleveland, New Orleans and Portland, OR refused to go along with Disney's requirement that they show nothing but the movie for four months.?Meanwhile Imax exec Brian Weisfeld has told today's (Wednesday) Hollywood Reporter that advance ticket sales for the movie are "off the charts," with some theaters reporting sales 20 times greater than average.?Looks like I'm not going to be seeing it.

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RE: Imax Theaters Refuse Fantasia 2000   reply

Posted by A random shemp (No Email) on December 29, 1999 7:18 PM

The only IMAX theater in LA also refused F2K because it wasn't educational enough (they figured classical music is not itself necessarily educational) and they wanted to show educational movies for school groups who come in in the afternoon. So, Disney is making their own temporary theater to show F2K in LA. No kidding. I have tickets for Jan. 1 there, so it better be ready!

Pity..   reply

Posted by A random shemp (No Email) on December 29, 1999 9:04 PM

It's a pity that Disney has to bite themselves in the ass, by forcing imax theatres to show it and only it for 4 months.. Consider how the companies who own the Imax theatre would respond to that... "Yay a Disney Movie!.." after 1 month all the default Imax movie goers are going to want to see something new... "Sorry come back in 3 months..." imagine the money they'll loose..

quite a shame.   reply

Posted by zathras (do_not@email.me) on December 31, 1999 1:46 AM

Does that mean it will never show in those theaters? If so, that is quite a shame. The only shows I've seen in Imax theaters were documentaries. The most entertaining bit for me was the "pseudo-hyperspace time tunnel ala 2001" that introduced the Imax technology. 

Well, okay.. the documentaries were all right. 

What I'd like to see is a Star Wars type movie in Imax format. Of course that wouldn't be shown either. Unless it had a DVD-like commentary by the special effects supervisors. "Luke, I am your-" "At this point, we used an (INSERT TECHNICAL JARGON) to simulate the bottomless pit into which Luke is about to dive into."