IMAX Corporation officially introduced its cinematic technology in China with this week's opening of its China operations and Asian headquarters in Shanghai.

It means Chinese people can now enjoy films on a big screen measuring 19 metres high and 24 metres wide - almost as big as an eight-storey building.

Enhanced by a specially-designed six-channel, multi-speaker sound systems, audiences will see never-before-filmed images.

Along with the two existing theatres at the Shanghai Science & Technology Museum, there will be four such theatres in the city by the end of next year, IMAX officials said.

IMAX has finalized an agreement with Golden Harvest Entertainment to develop a commercial cinema at the Peace Cinema site in Shanghai. It is scheduled to open next year.

In addition, IMAX completed an agreement with the Shanghai Film & TV group for a Race For Atlantis attraction, a motion simulation ride that incorporates an IMAX 3D Dome theatre.

The company also plans to roll out IMAX theatres throughout China and has recently signed an agreement with the Heilongjiang Science & Technology Museum to build an IMAX theatre in its new centre. It will open in 2003.

"We are also in dozens of serious talks throughout the country to open more cinemas here," said Richard Gelfond, IMAX Corporation Co-Chair & Co-CEO. "Because, to us, China is the second biggest market following the United States."

At the soft opening at the Shanghai Science & Technology Museum, IMAX theatres got a 60 per cent occupancy rate - "a very high figure," the CEO said.

( China Daily June 28, 2002)