The Wayback Machine - https://web.archive.org/web/20121115235504/http://www.imax.com:80/corporate/history/
History

History

March 2011 - IMAX announces a 75-theatre deal in China with Wanda Cinema Line . This agreement is the largest international deal to date for IMAX and second-largest in Company history. The Company forms IMAX China, a wholly-owned subsidiary, to oversee expanding IMAX business in Greater China.

February 2011 – IMAX transfers its stock listing in the U.S. to the New York Stock Exchange from the NASDAQ Stock Market.

December 2010 - Annual gross box office from IMAX DMR® titles reaches a record $546 million, more than double the Company's previous record of $270 million achieved in 2009.

July 2010 - IMAX and The Huayi Brothers of China release ‘Aftershock’, the Company’s first internationally-produced DMR movie. 

April 2010 - IMAX and Warner Bros. Pictures sign an agreement to release up to 20 titles in IMAX between 2010 and 2013. 

March 2010 – ‘Avatar: An IMAX 3D Experience’ completes its initial run as the all-time highest grossing IMAX release; the worldwide IMAX box office total for the film climbed to more than $220 million since the movie's launch in December 2009. 

March 2010 – The highly anticipated ‘Hubble 3D’ is released into the IMAX theatre network on March 19, 2010. 

January 2010 - IMAX announces that it is developing its first IMAX® 3D digital camera, with the goal of an official launch in 2011. The new IMAX 3D camera is planned to be a component of a suite of IMAX-branded products and services available to studios, partners and filmmakers for use in production of premium 3D content. 

January 2010 - Discovery Communications, Sony Corporation and IMAX Corporation announce a joint venture to develop the first 24/7 dedicated 3D television network in the U.S. 

January 2010 - IMAX announces that, for the fourth quarter ended December 31, 2009, IMAX DMR gross box office worldwide reaches the $100 million milestone, a first for the Company and a 225% increase over fourth quarter 2008 box office of  $31 million. 

June 2009 - IMAX and Huayi Bros. Media Corporation Ltd., China's largest privately owned media group, enter a partnership to release up to three mainstream Chinese pictures to capitalize on the growing size and scope of the IMAX theatre presence in China. 

May 2009 - The IMAX 3D camera returns to space on board the NASA Space Shuttle Atlantis to chronicle the final mission of The Hubble Telescope for the Warner Bros. and IMAX co-production: ‘Hubble 3D’. 

May 2009 - IMAX breaks its opening weekend box office record with the release of ‘Star Trek’, bringing in over $9.6 million in worldwide box office sales. 

November 2008 - IMAX and Disney enter a five picture deal starting with the 2009 release of Disney's ‘The Jonas Brothers: An IMAX 3D Concert Experience’, followed by the Fall 2009 3D release of Disney's ‘A Christmas Carol: An IMAX 3D Experience’, and Disney's ‘Alice in Wonderland: An IMAX 3D Experience’ in Spring 2010. 

July 2008 - IMAX begins the rollout of the digital theatre systems at AMC locations across North America. 

July 2008 –Warner Bros. Pictures and director Christopher Nolan make motion picture history by releasing ‘The Dark Knight’ as the first major Hollywood motion picture to include sequences shot with IMAX cameras. The film quickly becomes the highest grossing first-run IMAX release, and it inspires other Hollywood directors to incorporate the use of IMAX cameras into their productions. 

March 2008 - Regal Cinemas, Inc., a subsidiary of Regal Entertainment Group, the world's largest theatre circuit, enters a joint-venture agreement with IMAX to install 31 IMAX digital projection systems at Regal locations in 20 major U.S. markets. The deal expands the joint venture partnership between IMAX and Regal Cinemas to 38 theatres, and will bring Regal's total number of IMAX theatres to 52 by the end of 2010. 

December 2007 - AMC Entertainment and IMAX enter into a joint venture agreement to install 100 IMAX theatres equipped with IMAX's digital projection technology at AMC locations in 33 major U.S. markets. 

November 2007 - IMAX signs a four picture deal with DreamWorks Animation. The agreement marks IMAX's first multiple 3D picture deal with a Hollywood studio. 

September 2007 - IMAX and Wanda Cinema Line Corporation announced an agreement to install ten IMAX theatres in The People's Republic of China. The agreement marks the largest multiple IMAX theatre deal in the region. Wanda Cinema Line Corporation is the top performing and fastest growing exhibitor in The People's Republic of China with 121 screens in 15 locations. 

November 2006 - IMAX announces two strategic initiatives to further advance its leadership in the entertainment industry: the pursuit of joint-venture relationships with exhibitors and the development of a digital projection system. 

June 2006 – ‘Superman Returns: An IMAX 3D Experience’ becomes the world's first live-action Hollywood title to be released with select scenes converted into IMAX 3D using IMAX's proprietary live-action 2D to 3D digital conversion technology. 

November 2004 - Warner Bros. Pictures' ‘The Polar Express’ makes cinematic history as the world's first full- length IMAX 3D Hollywood feature. The IMAX 3D version shatters box office records worldwide and becomes the highest grossing digitally re-mastered IMAX release at over $60 million on under 100 screens. 

November 2003 – ‘The Matrix Revolutions’ becomes the first Hollywood film to be simultaneously released to IMAX and conventional theatres. 

March 2002 - IMAX announces IMAX DMR, a proprietary technology that enables conventional Hollywood blockbusters to be digitally re-mastered into IMAX's format. The first IMAX DMR movie is ‘Apollo 13: The IMAX Experience’, released in September of 2002. 

March 1997 - IMAX is awarded the sole Oscar for Scientific and Technical Achievement by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. The award recognizes IMAX's innovation in creating the world’s best image capture and projection system as well as IMAX’s acceptance as part of the entertainment mainstream. 

June 1994 - IMAX is listed on the NASDAQ stock exchange, in the same year of the first multiplex installation at the Loews IMAX Theatre in New York City. 

1986 - The world's first IMAX 3D system premieres at the Canada Pavilion, EXPO '86 in Vancouver, Canada. 

1973 - IMAX Dome (OMNIMAX) debuts at the Reuben H. Fleet Space Theatre in San Diego in 1973. 

1971 - The first permanent IMAX projection system is installed at Ontario Place's Cinesphere in Toronto in 1971.

1970 - IMAX technology premieres at the Fuji Pavilion, EXPO '70 in Osaka, Japan.

1967 - The IMAX system has its roots in EXPO '67 in Montreal, Canada where multi-screen films are the hit of the fair. A small group of Canadian filmmakers/entrepreneurs decide to design a new system using a single, powerful projector, rather than the multiple projectors used at that time. The result: the IMAX motion picture projection system, which revolutionizes cinema. 

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