HBO's Game of Thrones IMAX release was a huge success this weekend, and that could have some serious implications on the future of IMAX and of television.
This past weekend, HBO released a special Game of Thrones IMAX presentation in 205 screens across the country. For the price of an IMAX ticket viewers would see the most recent two episodes of the show, “The Watchers on the Wall” and “The Children,” plus the first trailer for the upcoming fifth season, as we previously reported
Even though it was just two episodes that aired six months ago and a trailer that would be posted online the same weekend, Game of Thrones in IMAX grossed $1.5 million this weekend. That put it at #15, averaging $7,300 per screen compared to American Sniper's $8,805.
This number isn’t exactly record breaking, but it does show that audiences are willing to come out and see television on the big screen, even if it’s just an encore presentation and not actually a new episode. And this concept of showing television in movie theaters may be the start of a new trend if audiences continue to turn out for these events. According to Variety, IMAX president Greg Foster considers this “first experiment” a success, indicating that more television could be shown in IMAX in the future.
What's not totally clear is how well this type of thing would do on a typical weekend. Part of the reason HBO and IMAX picked this weekend for the release was that Super Bowl weekend is traditionally a sluggish time at the box office, according to Deadline. It was also a weekend with no major release, although HBO probably didn't consider how big of a success American Sniper would turn out to be.
This all shows that audiences like the idea of seeing their favorite shows in a theater, and they might be willing to come out and see the season finale of a show like Game of Thrones or House of Cards in a theater rather than at home. The element of exclusivity is probably a big part of this too, as fans who turned out for the IMAX premiere got to see the Season 5 trailer before anyone else. This could be the beginning of a future where you can see the premiere of your favorite show a few days early if you go to an IMAX theater. In a media environment where audiences are increasingly staying away from the theater to watch Netflix or Video On Demand at home, that could be a game changer.
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