Hear what this internationally acclaimed historian and producer has to say on the subject. Click the play button.
|
Hear what this internationally acclaimed historian and producer has to say on the subject. Click the play button.
|
Why a documentary on the history of Cinerama will do well in today's varied market.
Documentaries about historical personalities, world exploration, things lost to history, technology, World War II, the Cold War, sports, not to mention Hollywood and the history of film have proven to be very successful in recent years. The Cinerama story has all this in abundance!
Documentaries are Hot!
The recent popularity of documentaries is due to the programming needs of cable outlets like The Learning Channel, The History Channel, Arts and Entertainment, all the classic movie channels, and Public Broadcasting. Baby boomers are a major demographic for these outlets.
Who would be the main audience for this?
In the United States alone there are 78 million baby boomers aged 36-54. Many of these boomers as children, were taken to the popular Cinerama extravaganzas that played in every major city in America. Box office records at the time substantiate the popularity of these "IMAX like" larger than life feature films. Most all of the Cinerama titles were in the top ten grossing films of this era and yet played in far less theaters than the Hollywood product.
What about home video sales?
Baby boomers are also more likely than others to be high-tech consumers of items like DVD players and collecting programs in the format. A documentary on Cinerama's history will be a welcomed addition to any film buff's collection. Who else? Nostalgia will always be big and 1950's nostalgia was never bigger than it is right now, even among non-baby boomers. Passionate film history and movie buffs, no matter what their age group, will find this lost nostalgic film history especially interesting. Cinerama films in many cases have not been seen for 40 years.
What about foreign markets?
Europe has always been an important market for the film and television industry. A documentary on Cinerama should do well among European baby boomers, as Cinerama presentations played to packed houses all through England, France, Denmark, and Spain. For example, in Germany's major cities alone, at Cinerama's peak, there were 22 theaters playing to full houses with 10 performances a week each.
How popular were these old 3 panel films anyway?
From 1952 to late 1959 box office grosses in America for Cinerama shows reached $93 million. After adjustment for inflation that would translate in today's dollars to $1 billion! (Unbelievable for a series of travelogues) Cinerama was so popular that two other rival 3-panel processes were developed, the first was called Cinemiracle, and then a Soviet version called Kinopanorama. Hollywood got into the wide screen wars with simplified versions like CinemaScope, Technirama, Todd-AO, VistaVision, Wonderama, and Panavision.
Some American Box Office Cinerama statistics:
1952 This Is Cinerama
(3 months in ONE theatre)#1 box office champ 1953 This Is Cinerama within top 10 1954 This Is Cinerama within top 10 1955 Cinerama Holiday #2 box office champ 1956 Seven Wonders of the World #3 box office champ 1957 Search For Paradise within top 20 1958 South Seas Adventure within top 10 1962 How The West Was Won #1 box office champ 1963 *Its a Mad Mad Mad World #2 box office champ 1968 *2001, A Space Odyssey #2 box office champ *Presented in Cinerama at Cinerama theatres but not filmed in the Cinerama process. Large format films are Hot!
Interest in large format films is big news again. Within 6 years of the death of Cinerama, another large format came along that goes by the name of IMAX. Box office receipts for these larger than life IMAX shows have recently been given an incredible boost with the release of Disney's Fantasia 2000 and other recent IMAX hits such as Everest. As a result, most major studios are in the early stages of development for IMAX films of their own. Perhaps someday they will make a documentary on how all this came about, however we doubt that it will be as fascinating and involve so many historical personalities as Cinerama.
