Sony has announced that the Green Hornet will open in IMAX theaters on January 14th simultaneously with its debut on thousands of conventional 3-D and 2-D screens.  All the IMAX showings will be in 3-D.  The higher ticket prices for IMAX showings (now pushing $20 in big cities) and for 3-D screenings at conventional multiplexes should help drive the film’s theatrical gross.

The debut of the Green Hornet was moved from December to January in order to secure a larger number of 3-D screens (see “Green Hornet Pushed Back for 3-D”).  The Martin Luther King Day holiday weekend has proven to be a pretty strong time frame for Hollywood in recent years, and the move should also mean that the Green Hornet will face weaker competition when it opens.  Although the buzz on the film has been mixed so far, the fact that it has secured IMAX openings is a good sign.

There should be a fair amount of merchandise that could benefit from a successful debut of the Green Hornet film including several comic book series from Dynamite (see “Green Hornet Movie Prelude”) and toys from Mezco (see “Green Hornet Movie Figures”).