Just in time for the summer high season, Cineplex Entertainment has launched a cross-country ad campaign spotlighting the best feature of its theaters.

No, not the air conditioning, but the giant screens. The ‘Go Big’ spots – now running in theaters, print, on billboards and on TV – urge viewers to ‘see movies the way they were meant to be seen’ by putting the width of a 50-inch TV screen up against one of the chain’s 50-foot screens.

It is the first campaign of its kind from a major North American exhibitor, and cost just under $1 million. But despite the implied message, the spots are not a shot at the DVD market, according to Cineplex president and CEO Ellis Jacob.

DVDs of Hollywood films now come out, on average, some four months after their theatrical debuts, raising the possibility that someday soon a season’s earliest tentpoles could be out on video before Labour Day.

The studios are also closing in on plans to release titles simultaneously to the home and theatrical markets.

‘The DVD window worries me only when it’s a title that’s doing extremely well,’ says Jacob. ‘When it’s a bad title, a title that’s dead, that’s really irrelevant.

‘At the end of the day, I believe we offer a totally different experience.’

Exhibitors often argue that they compete more directly with other ‘out of home’ attractions such as pro sports and theater. ‘You go to a hockey game with your family, you’re out $500,’ says Jacob.

The summer is off to a strong start for Cineplex, the country’s largest exhib, following the debuts of X-Men: The Last Stand and The Break-Up, which have made up for the shakier Mission: Impossible III and Poseidon.

Box offices in Canada and U.S. hit a serious slump in the first half of 2005, which cut into the summer.

The Break-Up opened to a weekend North American gross of US$38 million, double what Jacob expected. ‘Poseidon was kind of disappointing, but you’re going to have a few big hits and you’re going to have a few disappointments. That’s the business,’ he says.