Imax Q1 Beats Street With Highest Ever North American Market Share Thanks To ‘Dune: Part Two’ In Period With Few Big Releases

Imax more than hit its Q1 numbers with $79 million in revenue last quarter (down 9%) and a solid earnings bump, thanks in large part to its run with Dune: Part 2, a blockbuster amid a slow quarter for big releases. The box office was offset in part by a dip in new Imax systems sales.

The large format exhibitor’s global box office of $261 million marked its third highest grossing Q1 ever, driven by Dune, Godzilla x Kong: New Empire, Imax-exclusive Queen Rock Montreal and local language releases (21% of the total) in a quarter hit by a soft release slate due to the Hollywood strikes.

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Adjusted Ebitda (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization) of $32 million was about flat from the year before, beating Wall Street consensus. Net income of $3.3 million was up from $2.5 million. The shares have been on a roll recently, including this week, as Wall Street increasingly considers Imax the best way to find upside in the ongoing consumer shift toward premium screens. Installations were up but new sales eased, likely hampered in part by the actors and writers strikes as exhibitors were wary of spending in the face of thin slate, so that should pick up.

Domestically, Imax delivered 5.9% of domestic box office in North America for the quarter ended in March — its highest quarterly market share ever in North America — and 3.4% of global box office.

“Our industry leading momentum is fueled in part by our strategic expansion of the IMAX value proposition; increasingly, our technology is driving content creation as much as it is content delivery. “Oppenheimer”, “Dune — Part Two”, and “Godzilla x Kong” demonstrate that more and more of today’s commercially and critically successful blockbusters are shot with IMAX cameras for the IMAX platform — which drives our global box office and makes our systems even more of a ‘must have’ for global exhibitors,” said CEO Rich Gelfond.

“We currently have more films in production shooting with IMAX cameras than at any time in our history, and an unprecedented run of Filmed for Imax titles scheduled for 2025 — including every one of our releases slated for the critical summer blockbuster season. We are also opening the aperture of The IMAX Experince by working with a wider variety of creators than ever across local language, documentaries, and music, gaming, sports, and live events,” he said. “IMAX is very well-positioned to accelerate growth and margin expansion with a promising slate for the duration of the year, 2025, and 2026, and strong sales activity across key global markets we’re targeting for expansion.”

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