DATE: Tuesday, September 2, 1997            TAG: 9708300099

SECTION: DAILY BREAK             PAGE: E1   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY ERIKA REIF, STAFF WRITER 

                                            LENGTH:  123 lines

IMAX THEATERS GIVE MUSEUMS A BIG BOOST IN ATTENDANCE

WHEN TWO regional Hampton Roads museums decided to show IMAX movies, they were addressing one of the toughest problems of museums everywhere: how to just get folks in the door.

The really-big-screen, wrap-around-sound lure of 2-D and 3-D movies would bring the curious in. Once inside, moviegoers might explore the rest of the museum.

On the flip side, people visiting other museum exhibits could decide to catch an IMAX movie. And a good experience might bring them back for yet another visit.

Locally, the strategy has been working.

IMAX is phenomenal and unusual in terms of what it's done for museums,'' says Mac Rawls, director of Virginia Marine Science Museum in Virginia Beach.

Attendance has soared there since IMAX (named for maximum image) theaters were installed as part of an overall expansion last summer. Along with many other added exhibits, the 3-D theater has helped make the museum more popular, Rawls says.

Of the 692,000 visitors during the past year, about 350,000 saw an IMAX movie - more than the previous year's total attendance of 330,000, says museum spokesperson Alice Scanlan.

Showing IMAX movies, Rawls says, ``does a lot to refute the idea that museums are only dusty, musty places with mounted animals on exhibit.''

The only other IMAX venue in Hampton Roads is the Virginia Air and Space Center in Hampton, which has been showing 2-D IMAX films since opening in 1992. About 80 percent of the approximately 250,000 annual visitors see an IMAX movie, says executive director Kim Maher.

Although IMAX is not a perfect fit for all museums in every geographic area, it has been a successful tool in major markets for building and keeping audiences, Maher says. ``It is essentially a profit center, in terms of helping support the museum.''

Of the 154 permanent IMAX theaters worldwide, 75 are in the United States, three of them in Virginia. The third is at the Science Museum of Virginia in Richmond, where films are shown on a dome-shaped screen and viewed from slightly reclined seats. Another is at the Smithsonian's Air and Space Museum in Washington.

Attendance at the Richmond science museum jumped from 150,000 in 1982 to 400,000 in 1983, the year IMAX was introduced, says theater manager Eric Melenbrink. Visitation at the museum and its IMAX films are so integrated, he says, ``I don't know what would happen to our attendance if it didn't exist.''

Compared to ordinary theaters, IMAX blitzes audiences with screens that are five or six stories high and more than 80 feet wide - and with about 16,000 watts of wrap-around sound. The goal is to totally immerse viewers.

Among the three theaters in Virginia, every format is covered: IMAX dome (formerly called OMNIMAX) in Richmond, 3-D in Virginia Beach and 2-D in Hampton. Most 2-D films can be shown on 3-D and dome screens, Melenbrink says. In fact, he says, there aren't too many 3-D movies available.

The museums rotate films based on popularity and tend to select movies that reflect their particular focus. Even so, attendance at the Air and Space Center has been somewhat reduced since the Marine Science Museum in Virginia Beach started showing IMAX films, says Maher, the Hampton center's director.

The new theater in Virginia Beach ``presents some marketing challenges,'' Maher says. ``It makes it more difficult to expand our audience. It's easy for people in Virginia Beach to go to IMAX in Virginia Beach.

``Normally in an area this size, you would only find one.''

This competition prompted the Air and Space Museum to re-emphasize other exhibits.

``We can't rely too exclusively on IMAX to be our marketing vehicle,'' Maher says. ``Now we're probably taking a more balanced approach.''

Richmond, in turn, keeps an eye on what movies are shown in Hampton, Melenbrink says. While Virginia Beach is too far away to affect Richmond much, advertising areas for Hampton and Richmond often cross in localities such as Williamsburg.

When the Hampton IMAX first opened, there was a slight drop in school-group visitations in Richmond, Melenbrink says. But attendance was pumped up again by redirecting advertising in other directions.

In Virginia Beach, Rawls says his attendance is not reduced by the presence of the other two theaters. Most beach tourists would not bother driving to Hampton for an IMAX movie, he says, and residents are probably selecting movies based on subject, not location.

``If anything, it may increase the market,'' Rawls says of the competition in Hampton. ``People go to see one, and then they want to go see another one.

``I don't think the market that does exist has been saturated.''

Since premiering in 1970, IMAX Corp., based in Toronto, Ontario, has grown into a company that did $129 million in sales last year and netted about $15 million. An IMAX spokesperson says the company is pushing to break through the commercial market.

But with IMAX, high-tech means high costs. Opening a 2-D or 3-D theater runs between $4 million and $8 million, says the spokesperson. The projection and sound systems account for about $1.5 million of the total, says Maher, the Hampton center's director.

So most IMAX movies continue to be ``edu-tainment'' films produced for science museums. And most are, in fact, produced with some public money, says Science Museum of Virginia analyst Tom Driscoll. In Virginia, that means not competing with the private sector.

``We were told by the General Assembly in no uncertain terms that the purpose of the theater is to attract people to the museum,'' Driscoll says. ``It was not to be an entity in and of itself. I think if there were a market out there somewhere for 37-minute educational films, somebody would be filling it.''

As it stands, Driscoll says, ``When you're publicizing the theater, you're also publicizing the museum.''

This is true even with a commercial film like the Rolling Stones concert movie ``At the Max'' that played in Hampton last year.

With an occasional show like that, ``you've sort of broken the ice,'' Maher explains. ``You've drawn attention to the fact that a museum exists, and you hope they'll come back.

``It gives you a good opportunity to expand your basic museum audience and attract people who might not come to a museum at all.''

IMAX films are such a sensory bath that audiences find the learning experience to be painless, she says. They're another avenue to teaching, much like computers, CD-ROMs and simulators.

``People tend to remember things that pack an emotional wallop,'' Maher says. ``And that's something that IMAX does.'' ILLUSTRATION: TAMARA VONINSKI / The Virginian-Pilot

Mac Rawls, director of the Virginia Marine Science Museum...<

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