Bona's Flying Swords of Dragon Gate to Be Released in IMAX® Theatres Across North America

LOS ANGELES, May 7, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- IMAX Corporation (NYSE: IMAX; TSX: IMX), in partnership with Indomina Releasing (Indomina), today announced the release of Bona Film Group's (NASDAQ: BONA) blockbuster Flying Swords of Dragon Gate, starring Jet Li, for an exclusive, limited engagement across North America in September in the immersive IMAX® 3D format.

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Acquired for North American release by Indomina, the motion picture distribution arm of The Indomina Group, Flying Swords of Dragon Gate is the first Chinese-language film to be released in the IMAX® 3D format and the fourth-highest grossing Chinese-language film of all time.

"We're delighted to be working again with Bona and Tsui Hark and to release their newest film, Flying Swords of Dragon Gate," said Indomina Group Vice Chairman and CEO, Jasbinder Singh Mann. "It's an ideal fit for Indomina – just as IMAX is the ideal movie-going experience for the film. Audiences are in for a real treat when they see this Chinese martial arts masterpiece on the IMAX screen."

"We are honored that IMAX is a platform to showcase the best in locally-produced Chinese films to audiences around the world," said Greg Foster, IMAX Chairman and President of Filmed Entertainment. "Together with The Indomina Group and Bona Film Group, we are offering North American fans of Chinese martial arts films this rare opportunity to experience one of the biggest Chinese blockbusters of all time in the most immersive format available – IMAX."

"We're thrilled to have partnered with director Tsui Hark and IMAX in producing the first-ever IMAX 3D Chinese-language film," said Dong Yu, Founder, Chairman and CEO of Bona Film Group. "The success of the film in China has proven once again the huge potential of the China market, and has also demonstrated the sophistication of Chinese filmmakers in mastering the latest filmmaking technologies and techniques. We're absolutely excited that this unprecedented experience of Chinese cinema will soon be brought to North American audiences through The Indomina Group with their passion and marketing clout for Asian cinema, and the support of IMAX."

Since the film's December release in China, Flying Swords of Dragon Gate has earned approximately $86.5 million at the box office, of which approximately $10.6 million was generated in 61 digital IMAX® theatres across China. The film set a new record for a Chinese-produced movie released in the IMAX format and became the fourth-highest grossing IMAX DMR® title in China behind Avatar, Transformers: Dark of the Moon and Titanic 3D.  The film also won five awards at the 31st Hong Kong Film Awards held on April 15, including Best Action Choreography, Art Direction, Editing, Visual Effects and Sound Effects.

Flying Swords of Dragon Gate: An IMAX 3D Experience reunites renowned director Tsui Hark with his Once Upon a Time in China leading man, Jet Li, and also stars Zhou Xun, Aloys Chen Kun, Gwei Lun-Mei, Li Yuchun and Mavis Fan. It also reunites Tsui Hark with Indomina after their successful collaboration on last year's Detective Dee and The Mystery of the Phantom Flame.

Flying Swords of Dragon Gate: An IMAX 3D Experience is digitally re-mastered into the image and sound quality of The IMAX Experience® with proprietary IMAX DMR® (Digital Re-mastering) technology for presentation in IMAX 3D. The crystal-clear images, coupled with IMAX's customized theatre geometry and powerful digital audio, create a unique immersive environment that will make audiences feel as if they are in the movie.

About Flying Swords of Dragon Gate

Zhao Huai'an, a Ming Dynasty general played by Jet Li, finds himself at odds with Yu Huatian (Aloys Chen Kun), an evil, power-hungry eunuch. Eventually, these two adversaries cross paths with Ling Yanqiu (Zhou Xun) at the titular Dragon Gate Inn, a remote outpost in the desert at the very frontier of the kingdom.

About The Indomina Group

The Indomina Group is a vertically integrated independent studio launched in 2008 by Vice Chairman and CEO Jasbinder Singh Mann. Operating in Los Angeles and the Dominican Republic, Indomina takes a transmedia approach to collaborating with content creators around the world to bring innovative entertainment properties to the market. The company's global operations include the production and distribution of motion pictures, television, music, interactive games, and the ownership of world-class studio facilities and production services.

Recent acquisitions for The Indomina Group's releasing division include Ice-T's performance movie "Something From Nothing: The Art of Rap," Sheldon Candis' "LUV," starring Common, the documentary "The Imposter," and the music themed coming of age film "Filly Brown" - all of which were acquired at this year's Sundance Film Festival.  Additional acquisitions include "A Fantastic Fear of Everything" starring Simon Pegg and the thriller "Life Without Principle" - the newest film from internationally acclaimed director/producer and contemporary maestro of Hong Kongese action cinema Johnnie To. Upcoming productions from Indomina include a new live action "Afro Samurai" with Samuel L. Jackson, "Cabin Fever: Patient Zero" and "Cabin Fever: Outbreak."

For more information please visit www.indomina.com 

About Bona Film Group Limited

Bona Film Group Limited (Nasdaq: BONA) is a leading film distributor in China, with an integrated business model encompassing film production, film distribution, advertising, theatre management, film exhibition and talent representation. Bona distributes films to Europe, Greater China, Korea, Southeast Asia and the United States, invests and produces movies in a variety of genres, owns and operates seventeen movie theaters and manages a range of talented and popular Chinese artists. For more information about Bona, please visit www.bonafilm.cn.

About IMAX Corporation

IMAX Corporation is one of the world's leading entertainment and technology companies, specializing in the creation and delivery of premium, awe-inspiring entertainment experiences. With a growing suite of cutting-edge motion picture and sound technologies, and a globally recognized entertainment brand, IMAX is singularly situated at the convergence of the entertainment industry, innovation and the digital media world. The industry's top filmmakers and studios are utilizing IMAX theatres to connect with audiences in extraordinary ways, and as such, the IMAX network is among the most important and successful theatrical distribution platforms for major event films around the globe. The Company's new digital projection and sound systems - combined with a growing blockbuster film slate - are fueling the rapid expansion of the IMAX network in established markets such as North America, Western Europe, and Japan, as well as emerging markets such as China and Russia. IMAX delivers the world's best cinematic presentations using proprietary IMAX^®, IMAX 3D^®, and IMAX DMR^® (Digital Re-Mastering) technologies. IMAX DMR enables virtually any motion picture to be transformed into the unparalleled image and sound quality of The IMAX Experience^®. 

IMAX is headquartered in New York, Toronto and Los Angeles, with offices in London, Tokyo, Shanghai and Beijing.  As of March 31, 2012, there were 643 IMAX theatres (510 commercial multiplex, 20 commercial destination and 113 institutional) in 52 countries.

IMAX®, IMAX® 3D, IMAX DMR®, Experience It In IMAX®, An IMAX 3D Experience® and The IMAX Experience® are trademarks of IMAX Corporation. More information about the Company can be found at www.imax.com. You may also connect with IMAX on Facebook (www.facebook.com/imax), Twitter (www.twitter.com/imax) and YouTube (www.youtube.com/imaxmovies).

This press release contains forward looking statements that are based on IMAX 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, but are not limited to, general economic, market or business conditions, including the length and severity of the current economic downturn, the performance of IMAX DMR films, the opportunities that may be presented to and pursued by IMAX, competitive actions by other companies, conditions in the in-home and out-of home entertainment industries, the signing of theatre system agreements, changes in law or regulations, conditions, changes and developments in the commercial exhibition industry, the failure to respond to changes and advancements in digital technology, the failure to convert theatre system backlog into revenue, new business initiatives, investments and operations in foreign jurisdictions and any future international expansion, the inability to protect IMAX's intellectual property foreign currency fluctuations and IMAX's prior restatements and the related litigation.  These factors and other risks and uncertainties are discussed in IMAX's most recent Annual Report on Form 10-K and most recent Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q.

SOURCE IMAX Corporation