Imax rode a pair of male-skewing blockbusters in Paramount’s “Gladiator II” and Sony’s “Venom: The Last Dance,” plus holiday audiences for Disney’s “Mufasa” to $93 million in revenue for Q4 of 2024.
While it is an 8% year-over-year increase, it missed Wall Street projections for $104 million in quarterly revenue. Imax took a hit in after-hours trading, dropping approximately 5% before recovering slightly to $26.30/share at the time of writing after closing at $27.22.
More topline results:
EPS: Imax reported a net income for the quarter of $5 million, with an adjusted earnings per share of 27 cents. That is slightly below the projections of 29 cents per share by Zacks Investment Research.
Full-year income was reported at $26 million with a total adjusted EBITDA of $139 million. Q4 EBITDA was reported at $37 million.
Box Office: “Gladiator II” and “Venom 3” were in a virtual tie for the top spot in Imax’s quarterly box office charts, with each contributing $31 million to the $204 million overall total. “Mufasa” fell just behind with $26 million, making the majority of its quarterly Imax gross between Christmas Day and New Year’s Eve as the Disney prequel rebounded from a slow opening weekend to gross $688 million worldwide.
New Auditoriums: Imax installed 58 new auditoriums in Q4, bringing its total installments for 2024 to 146, up from 128 in 2023. Of those, 28 systems in the fourth quarter and 63 in the full year were under sales arrangements, compared to 35 and 70 systems in the prior year, respectively. Imax is expecting to at least match that total in 2025, estimating 145-160 new installations in the coming year.
“In 2024, Imax further strengthened its position at the center of global entertainment – expanding the roster of filmmakers working with our technology, strengthening our studio marketing, hitting the high-end of our installation guidance and innovating to expand our programming – including our deal with Netflix for the release of Greta Gerwig’s ‘Narnia’ across the Imax global network in advance of its debut on the service,” CEO Richard Gelfond said in a statement.
“With the headwinds we faced in China in 2024 beginning to lift, we’re poised to build on the fourth quarter’s significant double-digit growth in adjusted EBITDA and earnings per share. We look forward to capitalizing on the promising opportunity ahead to achieve a record year at the global box office and strong returns for our shareholders.”
Imax is already seeing a huge start to 2025 thanks to Chinese moviegoers heading out during the Lunar New Year period to see the historic hit “Ne Zha 2,” which is now the highest grossing animated film of all time. Thanks in large part to that film, Lunar New Year totals for Imax have hit a company record $130 million, already exceeding the entirety of Imax’s grosses for local Chinese films in 2024.
With that early boost and a major summer slate that includes “Jurassic World: Rebirth,” “Superman,” “F1” and “The Fantastic 4: First Steps,” Imax is projecting that its 2025 global box office will reach a record $1.2 billion.
Movie theaters, still adjusting to a diminished theatrical market following COVID, have become more reliant than ever on films with big-budget spectacle to get the public off the couch and in their auditoriums, making premium formats like Imax even more desirable for customers and exhibitors alike.
