Get Your ‘AVATAR Day’ Tickets This Monday!

On Monday, 20th Century Fox will make begin the ticket distribution on the website for its Cameron-directed film “Avatar” with free tickets for an early look at 16 minutes of footage from the futuristic thriller that will be shown in more than 100 Imax 3-D theaters around the world.

With two screenings on Friday, Aug. 21 (at 6 and 6:30 p.m.), the “Avatar” preview will include an introduction from Cameron and some new footage not shown during July’s Comic-Con International convention in San Diego.

The unprecedented promotion — which includes more than 30 Imax 3-D screens overseas — signals just how much Fox has riding on its massive “Avatar” investment (more than $240 million in production costs) and how Imax is trying to position its theaters as the destination for the highly anticipated movie. Avatar” will be playing at more than 225 Imax theaters when it opens Dec. 18.

Fox is not paying Imax to use its theaters for the preview, though the studio is bearing the cost of producing and distributing the digital prints. Imax will provide 3-D glasses.

In what’s sure to be a mad grab among sci-fi fans, tickets will be given away a first-come, first-served basis on the “Avatar” website (www.avatarmovie.com) at noon PST Monday.

“I think that there’s not enough of an understanding of what show business means,” Greg Foster, president of Imax Filmed Entertainment said of the sneak preview. “You can’t have business without showmanship. What Fox and [‘Avatar’ producer] Lightstorm Entertainment and Imax are doing is the personification of the correlation between those two words — ‘show’ and ‘business.’ ”

Fox will also release the first “Avatar” trailer in theaters around the world next Friday.

Source = LA Times