IMAX tops $1bn in box office
February 27, 2019
By Chris Forrester
IMAX, in revealing its 2018 revenues, reported that it had topped $1 billion in global box office takings for the year, and had enjoyed its best-ever year in China where box office revenues were up 61 per cent y-o-y (at $78 million).
Overall revenues for Q4/2018 were $109 million, with a gross profit of $54.6 million. Full year revenues were $374.4 million, and gross profit of $207.9 million.
During Q4, IMAX installed 88 theatre systems, 67 of which were for new theatre locations. The total IMAX theatre network consisted of 1,505 systems as at December 31st, 2018, of which 1,409 were in commercial multiplexes. There were 564 theatres in backlog as of December 31st, 2018, compared to the 499 in backlog the same period a year ago.
“We believe our achievements last year set the stage for IMAX to have a blockbuster year in 2019. We further differentiated The IMAX Experience, increased awareness of the IMAX brand and tackled key challenges in China, where we delivered our strongest box office year ever and doubled the industry growth rate,” said IMAX CEO Richard Gelfond. “While these achievements have already begun paying dividends we anticipate these initiatives to continue to improve the performance of our business in 2019 and beyond.. Overall, we are encouraged by our recent results as we head into the blockbuster filled calendar, which includes highly anticipated films such as Captain Marvel, Avengers: Endgame, The Lion King and Star Wars Episode IX.”