After a weekend that the company says demonstrates a “paradigm shift at hand in moviegoing,” Imax Corporation has reported a 32% jump in revenue for its second quarter and an 8% increase, to $268m, in global box office.
The large-format exhibition operation had revenue of $98m for the quarter and profit of $8.4m, up from a loss of $2.9m in the previous year’s second quarter. Adjusted EBITDA was up 29% to $32.8m.
The top grossing Imax releases in the second quarter were The Super Mario Bros Movie and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 3. But in his comments on the results company CEO Richard Gelfond highlighted last week’s opening of Oppenheimer over “a weekend where moviegoing reasserted itself as an unparalleled cultural and commercial force.”
Gelfond said Imax venues delivered 20% - $35m – of the global opening tally for Oppenheimer. Together with Chinese local hit Creation Of The Gods 1: King Of Storms and holdover release Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One, the Universal blockbuster helped Imax to its fourth best weekend ever, with an overall box office of $46.4m.
Gelfond also touted Imax success with local films such as Lost In The Stars in China and How Do You Live in Japan. “Local language content is exploding as a future growth driver of global box office,” he said. The company expects to handle more than 40 local language films worldwide in 2023, he added.
Gelfond predicted a strong second half of 2023 for Imax with releases including Dune Part 2, Aquaman And The Lost Kingdom, Napoleon and Killers of the Flower Moon.
“While there is some concern about release dates shifting due to the labor strikes,” he conceded, “we believe nearly all of our second half slate has wrapped shooting.”
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