IMAX Signs First Joint Venture Theatre Deal in Europe

IMAX Signs First Joint Venture Theatre Deal in Europe

Cineplexx Kinobetriebe and IMAX Enter Joint Venture Agreement for Three Theatres in Austria

IMAX's Digital Projection System Continues to Drive Joint Venture Business

TORONTO, Oct. 7 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- IMAX Corporation (NASDAQ:IMAX; TSX:IMX) and Cineplexx Kinobetriebe Gmbh, the largest exhibitor in Austria, today announced a joint venture agreement to install three IMAX(R) theatres in Austria. The deal marks IMAX's first joint venture in Europe, and continues the Company's global expansion with its new digital projection system. To date, IMAX has signed contracts for more than 180 IMAX digital projection systems, with 18 currently in operation and a total of 45-50 scheduled to be in operation by year end.

The first theatre is expected to be installed in the city of Graz during the first quarter of 2009, followed by a location in Vienna the second quarter of 2009 and a third location in the city of Hohenems during the fourth quarter of 2009. All three theatres will be equipped with IMAX's new digital projection system.

"Installing IMAX theatres in our multiplexes is an enormous benefit for our business and our customers as it enables us to offer a premium immersive movie experience that consumers will be delighted to have in Austria," said Christian Langhammer and Christof Papousek, managing directors of Cineplexx Kinobetriebe. "IMAX's new digital projection system, which can be retrofitted into our existing auditoriums, combined with IMAX's joint venture business model, offers us an economical and highly efficient way to enter the IMAX business."

"This joint venture agreement is an important first step for our digital growth strategy in Europe," said IMAX's Co-Chairmen and Co-CEOs, Richard L. Gelfond and Bradley J. Wechsler. "We believe a partnership with Austria's leading exhibitor will help to strengthen our brand in the region and expand our audience base during a time when our film slate and interest from Hollywood studios is at an unprecedented level."

"There is significant potential for us in this virtually untapped market, where we can align ourselves with the country's top exhibitor to offer a whole new way to experience movies," added Larry O'Reilly, Executive Vice President of Theatre Development. "With Cineplexx Kinobetriebe's well-known marketing expertise, combined with Hollywood's biggest event movies and the IMAX brand, we believe this joint venture partnership is a natural fit for IMAX."

IMAX's digital projection system delivers The IMAX Experience(R) and helps drive profitability for studios, exhibitors and IMAX theatres by eliminating the need for film prints, increasing program flexibility and ultimately increasing the number of movies shown on IMAX screens. The system can run both IMAX and IMAX(R) 3D presentations.

   Upcoming IMAX films include    2008   ----   Madagascar 2: Escape 2 Africa - DreamWorks Animation   The Day the Earth Stood Still - Twentieth Century Fox    2009   ----   Under the Sea 3D - IMAX / Warner Bros. Pictures   Watchmen - Warner Bros. Pictures / Paramount Pictures / Legendary   Pictures   Monsters vs. Aliens 3D - DreamWorks Animation   Night at the Museum Battle of the Smithsonian - Twentieth Century Fox   Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen - DreamWorks Pictures /   Paramount Pictures   Harry Potter and the Half-blood Prince - Warner Bros. Pictures    2010   ----   Hubble 3D (working title) - IMAX / Warner Bros. Pictures   How to Train Your Dragon 3D - DreamWorks Animation   Shrek Goes Fourth 3D - DreamWorks Animation    About Cineplexx Kinobetriebe   

Cineplexx Kinobetriebe GmbH was founded in 1993 and is a wholly owned subsidiary of Constantin Film Holding GmbH, located in Vienna/Austria. Cineplexx emerged in a period when many traditional cinemas disappeared in Austria and multiplex cinemas captured the market. Constantin Film realized this trend and built up a group with 20 cinemas and 160 screens. An affiliated company runs ten traditional theaters. Constantin Film Holding GmbH made a revenue of almost 80 Million Euro in 2007 and employs some 800 people. More information www.cineplexx.at.

About IMAX Corporation

IMAX Corporation is one of the world's leading entertainment technology companies, specializing in immersive motion picture technologies. The worldwide IMAX network is among the most important and successful theatrical distribution platforms for major event Hollywood films around the globe, with IMAX theatres delivering the world's best movie presentations using proprietary IMAX, IMAX 3D, and IMAX DMR(R), technology. IMAX DMR is the Company's groundbreaking digital re-mastering technology that allows it to digitally transform virtually any conventional motion picture into the unparalleled image and sound quality of The IMAX Experience. IMAX's renowned projectors display crystal-clear images on the world's biggest screens, and the IMAX brand is recognized throughout the world for extraordinary and immersive entertainment experiences for consumers. As of June 30, 2008, there were 302 IMAX theatres operating in 40 countries.

   IMAX(R), IMAX(R) 3D, IMAX DMR(R), IMAX(R) MPX(R), and The IMAX   Experience(R) are trademarks of IMAX Corporation. More information on the   Company can be found at www.imax.com.   

This press release contains forward looking statements that are based on management's assumptions and existing information and involve certain risks and uncertainties which could cause actual results to differ materially from future results expressed or implied by such forward looking statements. Important factors that could affect these statements include ongoing discussions with the SEC and OSC relating to their ongoing inquiries and the Company's accounting, the performance of films, the signing of theatre system agreements, the viability of new technologies, businesses and products, the timing of theatre system deliveries, the mix of theatre systems shipped, the timing of the recognition of revenues and expenses on film production and distribution agreements, risks arising from potential material weaknesses in internal control over financial reporting and fluctuations in foreign currency and in the large format, general commercial exhibition and out-of-home entertainment markets. These factors and other risks and uncertainties are discussed in the Company's most recent Annual Report on Form 10-K and most recent Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q.

First Call Analyst:
FCMN Contact:

Source: IMAX Corporation

CONTACT: Media: IMAX Corporation, New York, Sarah Gormley, (212)
821-0155, sgormley@imax.com; Entertainment Media: Rogers & Cowan, Los Angeles,
Jason Magner, (310) 854-8128, jmagner@rogersandcowan.com; Investors: IMAX
Corporation - New York, Heather Anthony, (212) 821-0121, hanthony@imax.com;
Business Media: Sloane & Company, New York, Whit Clay, (212) 446-1864,
wclay@sloanepr.com

---

Profile: International Entertainment