IMAX Corporation is planning to quadruple the number of screens in Britain that are capable of showing its large-scale 2D and 3D films.

The business, which has been developing the technology since the 1960s, says that it is on the verge of a breakthrough after having cut the cost of playing and producing an IMAX film.

“We have evolved from films about whales, bears and seals,” Rich Gelfond, co-chief executive officer, said in London on a visit to promote IMAX to the film industry across Europe.

IMAX is trying to expand its British cinemas from nine to between 35 and 40 over “the next few years”, although so far it has signed up only one cinema owner, National Amusements.

Two technological developments are key to the company’s optimism. First, it is no longer necessary to build a dedicated cinema, which costs at least $5 million (£2.7 million). Instead it has become possible to retro-fit a multiplex for $1.6 million.

“We think you can get a return on investment in three years if you can take $1 million a year, which in the UK means selling 80,000 tickets,” Mr Gelfond said. “Previously you would have to have sold 250,000.”

For a large cinema the prospect is probably realistic, although a cinema would have to sell 220 tickets a night on average to meet that goal. In the UK, National Amusements, which trades under the name Showcase Cinemas, plans to develop 13 screens with the technology.

IMAX is also able to release films in its format at the same time as the main release. It takes about four weeks of behind-the-scenes work to “blow up” a film and costs $5 million, which is typically shared between the company and the relevant studio.

The company can also turn an animated picture into a 3D movie as quickly, although viewers have to wear special plastic glasses. Executives are working on extending the technology to apply to traditional film over the next year.

In the run-up to Christmas, The Polar Express, a Warner Brothers film that featured the voice of Tom Hanks — who frequently narrates IMAX-only films — was screened in large-screen 3D format at the same time that it was put out on general release in normal format.

In North America, the IMAX edition of The Polar Express generated $35 million in revenues, which amounted to a quarter of the total gross on the Continent.

In London, at the British Film Institute’s IMAX screen, the film sold 21,000 tickets in the opening weekend. The company recieves a proportion of the gross revenues.

Hopes that IMAX will find hitherto elusive commercial success have reached Wall Street. The Nasdaq-listed company’s stock price has doubled since October, valuing the business at $393 million, but in the first nine months of last year its profits were still only a modest $2.5 million.

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