The global box office recovery for Imax has been driven by drawing premium ticket prices and releasing local language blockbusters in Asia.
So says Imax CEO Richard Gelfond, who told an investors conference that consumers coming out of the pandemic are willing to pay a premium for “something special,” whether for music concerts or live sports, and that includes his company’s giant screen experience.
“We charge more, but people are saying for something special and something out of the home and something I can enjoy with my family is worth paying for,” he told the JP Morgan Global Technology, Media and Communications Conference during a session that was webcast.
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The box office recovery at the cinema technologies company has been led by James Cameron’s Avatar: The Way of Water, but Imax has also pursued a strategy of releasing local language titles and Hollywood tentpoles on its international network of screens.
Recent Hollywood blockbusters that played in Imax theaters include Creed III, Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania and John Wick 4. The local language releases included Japan’s Suzume from Toho and Yash Raj Films’ Pathaan in India, and Chinese box office, including China Film Group’s The Wandering Earth 2 release, as China continues to reopen its movie theaters.
Gelfond reported one-third of global revenues during the first financial quarter came from foreign content, and many of the local language releases drove box office in countries outside their home markets. That’s helping cement Imax’s status as a launch pad for local language blockbusters in Japan, India, Hong Kong and Singapore, among other Asian markets.
“We’re doing a lot more language films and they’re films that are travelling from one territory to another. So it’s Japanese anime and it’s Indian films,” Gelfond said. And the return of Hollywood tentpoles on top of local-language blockbusters has allowed Imax a big rebound in its Asia business starting last year.
China is its own bucket, however, after COVID lockdowns, the return of stringent censorship control and reduced Hollywood product in the market until recently. “China is a year behind the rest of the world in the recovery from the pandemic,” which has produced a lag in expected theater signings and box office gains in that market, Gelfond told the investors conference.
On the performance in China of Hollywood tentpoles, Gelfond said “for the right movie, people will come out,” as he pointed to Avatar: The Way of Water performing well locally, even if box office for certain Marvel titles like Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania underwhelmed.
Gelfond cautioned China was still in a recovery phase as minor COVID lockdowns still flare up in that market. “I don’t think it’s going to be back to normal because it’s not a light switch. It’s a faucet, but I think it’s headed in that direction at a fairly rapid pace,” he argued.
