General atmosphere during the Imax private screening for the movie “First Man” at an Imax AMC Theater in New York City on Oct. 10, 2018.
Lars Niki | Getty Images Entertainment | Getty Images
An “embarrassment of riches” at the box office could fuel a $1.2 billion year for IMAX, CEO Rich Gelfond told CNBC Friday.
That volume would mark the best box office haul for the company, which specializes in high-resolution cameras, film formats, projectors and theaters.
“I think it’s going to be a very strong year,” Gelfond said in an interview with CNBC’s “Squawk on the Street.” “The first thing that drives that is the slate.”
Gelfond pointed to a number of blockbuster titles slated for release in the next 10 months, including a new “Mission Impossible,” a live-action “How to Train Your Dragon” film, another “Jurassic Park” installment, a sequel to “Zootopia” and a third “Avatar” release.
Hollywood production issues led to fewer theatrical releases and smaller ticket sales in 2024, with box office receipts down 3.4% from 2023 to $8.74 billion. Already, the 2025 slate appears more robust, with more titles and bigger franchise films.
Aiding IMAX’s lofty box office goals is the Chinese title “Ne Zha 2,” which has already garnered $1.6 billion globally. It is the first film to have topped $1 billion in a single country. Gelfond noted that IMAX accounted for $135 million of the film’s total box office.
“We’ve done more box office in China in the first six weeks of this year than we did the whole year last year,” he said.
He added that “Ne Zha 2” is doing “like $100 million a day” and that IMAX has accounted for around 13% of the film’s box office receipts.
Disclosure: Comcast is the parent company of NBCUniversal and CNBC. NBCUniversal is the distributor of “How to Train Your Dragon” and “Jurassic World Rebirth.”