29 June - 5 July 2000

IMAX President visits Eden Leisure Group

Mary Pat Ryan, president of the IMAX Network Group, was recently in Malta meeting with the Eden Leisure Group and the progress of the Eden IMAX project in St. George's Bay. Ms Ryan, who is based in New York, was on tour of the new IMAX theatres around Europe. She met with Eden Leisure's Directors, Ian and Kevin De Cesare as well as Edward Fenech, the Director of Entertainment and Leisure and Simon De Cesare, the company's business administration manager, to discuss operations of the large screen format and to learn more about the market locally.

Ms Ryan stated that the IMAX Corp, a publicly traded company based in Canada is committed to investing in technology, the production and promotion of large format movies as well as offering unsurpassed customer service to IMAX operators.

Ms Ryan said that the Eden IMAX is an important milestone in IMAX's development and expansion around the world. With a little over 200 screens around the world and in 26 countries, the one in Malta will be the first in the Southern European region.

The Eden IMAX will have 300 seats with a screen that is a towering six stories high and will have the clearest and sharpest picture known.

Mary Pat was very enthusiastic and optimistic about this part of the Eden Leisure Group's redevelopment project. The Eden project includes an ice skating rink, a 450 room 5 star hotel, a 40 unit timeshare operation, a newly revamped Cynergi fitness and health centre, and a car park.

Mary Pat emphasised that the entertainment marketplace world-wide is more competitive than ever and the consumer of the new millennium is the smartest and most demanding yet. These factors impact the IMAX brand and IMAX theatres world-wide. It is felt that the IMAX brand is very well suited for the new millennium, presenting excitement and entertainment in a new dimension.

Malta, she states, is an ideal location for an IMAX theatre as there is a good mix of tourists, local trade and alternative education seeking schools and families. Many educational options will be available to schools and parents with the opening of the IMAX theatre in December this year.

The IMAX experience is unique and entirely different from the traditional cinematic experience we have known. The types of films are particularly diverse. Typically, in the past, the films shown have been of an educational nature, but none the less thrilling.