Ben Beaumont-Thomas 

Make ’em laugh: Imax head says audiences want happier films

Greg Foster says movies that ‘had a twinkle in their eye’ tended to perform better this summer
  
  

Guardians of the Galaxy
Dispelling gloom: Guardians of the Galaxy. Photograph: AP

Greg Foster, the head of Imax who create projection systems for extra-large cinema screens, has said that audiences are looking for more easygoing, happy films.

Speaking at a Bank of America media conference, he said: “Maybe people are getting a little sick of the post-apocalyptic, dark, angst-ridden, suicidal movies. There’s maybe a few too many of those.” Perhaps driven by the success of Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight series, gloom has permeated a surprising number of mega-budget Hollywood movies in recent years, including Man of Steel, Godzilla, and World War Z.

Foster instead pointed to the box-office success of films that had “a twinkle in their eye”, including summer hit Guardians of the Galaxy.

Foster said the success of Guardians and the likes of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles wouldn’t be enough to prop up a relatively dismal year for box-office returns, but that he was looking forward to 2015’s remarkable run of big-name franchises: “When you have an Avengers, a Star Wars, a Bond, another Marvel title in Ant-Man, a Pan, Terminator and Fast and Furious 7 in one year, that’s unbelievable.” Other likely franchise hits include the climactic Hunger Games movie, and Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice.

 

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