'Game of Thrones' IMAX Release Date News: Ticket Sales Growing Impressively
"Game of Thrones" continues to impress the entertainment industry, making history as its advance IMAX ticket sales keep on growing impressively.
Though box office numbers are yet to be made available, reports said some of the 200 theaters in larger cities that booked the IMAX screening of the hit HBO series have already sold out tickets.
In spite of the unexpectedly huge sales, the Season 5 trailer that will premiere in IMAX has officially been given an R Rating by the Motion Picture Association of America, or MPAA, according to Air Herald.
"The trade association that represents the six major Hollywood studios gave the said rating because the trailer features sequences of brutal violence and language including sexual references," Design and Trend reported.
Citing sources, Entertainment Weekly revealed how insiders anticipated ticket sales to hit a wall before spiraling to a decline. But due to its huge and avid fandom, "Game of Thrones" continues to accelerate sales.
An average of weekend take for an IMAX theater is $4,000 to $5,000 per screen, but it looks like the fantasy drama series is going to easily exceed that.
For a screening of two already shown episodes of the last season of "Game of Thrones" as well as a never-before-seen trailer, the ticket sales were extraordinary, even eclipsing the pre-sales of nearly all of IMAX's previous special event screenings.
IMAX Entertainment CEO Greg Foster said he only booked "Thrones" for an IMAX screening just to help fill a gap during what is traditionally a very slow time of the year at the box office.
But Foster said he had an instinctive feeling that the acclaimed fantasy hit, which is the first ever TV series to ever be remastered for an IMAX release, would perform well.
"We announced this and our website crashed. As soon as that happened, my instinct didn't matter; [the interest] became empirical," Foster told the Entertainment Weekly.
"Then a week later, we announced we were moving the date to accommodate more theaters, and the website crashed again—twice. So that was a pretty good indication," he added.
HBO programming president Michael Lombardo clarified that he struck the deal not to generate revenue but to spur interest in the show's upcoming season, which will debut on April 12.
"If we were premiering the first episode of the new season in IMAX, I wouldn't have been surprised. But that's not what we're doing," Lombardo also told Entertainment Weekly.
"It's very heartening and surprising that people are willing to pay money and drive somewhere to re-experience a show they've already seen and now want to see again on a big screen with friends and family," he added.
Earlier this month, IMAX and HBO announced that they will be re-mastering last year's penultimate action-packed episode "The Watchers on the Wall" and the Emmy-nominated season finale "The Children" to fit IMAX screens.
"Thrones" opens for a one-week engagement on Thursday night. Tickets are available through IMAX's website—that is, assuming it doesn't crash again.