IMAX CEO on best opening weekend of 2025 with Disney’s ‘Avatar: Fire and Ash’

Morgan Brennan (Anchor) 00:00.110

because disney 's avatar fire and ash bringing in about ninety million dollars over the weekend in the domestic box office that was lower than analysts expected about halfway between the first and second films openings but this one did much better for imax delivering the biggest

Morgan Brennan (Anchor) 00:13.710

opening weekend of the year fifth biggest in imax history according to the company sack is up forty six percent so far this year joining me now is imax CEO richard gelfond richard it's great to have you on

Richard Gelfond (CEO) 00:24.910

nice to be with you morgan so

Morgan Brennan (Anchor) 00:26.670

so we just talked about an opening weekend that was less than analyst expectations but it was strong for imax walk me through it

Richard Gelfond (CEO) 00:35.710

well i think the world is really if anything was proven in twenty five in the couple years before that people are seeking out premium experiences especially for blockbuster type movies and avatar and imax kind of have a great history together our two biggest films of all time

Richard Gelfond (CEO) 00:55.830

are avatar well two of the three are avatar one and avatar two so i think a lot of people seek out imax we did indexing was even better on this one than it was on way of water the last one we did about fifteen percent of the domestic box office and about thirteen percent of the

Richard Gelfond (CEO) 01:17.590

global box office full way of water we were closer to twelve percent of domestic and lower as well for international so i think when it's a big blockbuster and particularly when it's avatar people want to see it in imax it makes a difference it's the makers vision of the way

Richard Gelfond (CEO) 01:37.710

people should see it and it's spectacular

Morgan Brennan (Anchor) 01:40.750

is the takeaway there then that you're continuing to gain market share of the current box office even if the current box office isn't growing more broadly

Richard Gelfond (CEO) 01:48.910

yeah i think that is the take away morgan as a matter of fact before avatar open this had already been a record year for imax in our almost sixty year history so over the last several years since the pandemic our our indexing and our market share has been growing very nicely and

Richard Gelfond (CEO) 02:10.350

i think people when they leave the home they just want something different than they could get in the home and i think i'm actually shows that and you know as as i said record year but we're predicting next year will be even a bigger year it's a year with fantastic movies

Richard Gelfond (CEO) 02:30.630

starting with avatar and then among other things that goes in to star wars it goes in to the odyssey and the the odyssey prologue is on the front of avatar then you've got dune three you've got greta gerwig 's narnia so i mean things are going very well for us

Morgan Brennan (Anchor) 02:52.590

so looking at twenty twenty six and i guess the box office more broadly and how picky perhaps consumers have been do you think twenty twenty six continues to build off of the momentum in twenty twenty five

Richard Gelfond (CEO) 03:06.230

but as i said for imax have no question we guided to one point four billion in twenty six which is up from twenty five and i think even the general box office the theatrical box office people are predicting an increase but i do think there's kind of a fracture in the market

Richard Gelfond (CEO) 03:26.590

where for special movies people want special experiences and particularly film makers so when you again going to twenty six you've got great film makers like christopher nolan you got denny villeneuve you've got greta gerwig you've got jon favreau so when they release their

Richard Gelfond (CEO) 03:47.430

movies they want it to be special they want their vision they want people to see it the way they want to make it and i think audiences are responding to that