Agamemnon and Odysseus in “The Odyssey”.
Source: Universal Images
Christopher Nolan’s “The Odyssey” accumulates box office revenue for Imax and fuel investor confidence that the company will achieve record ticket sales in 2026.
Shares of Imax jumped more than 8% Thursday after the company announced it was still on track to achieve a record $1.4 billion global box office this year. Wall Street was worried that when Netflix and Greta Gerwig’s “Narnia: The Magician’s Nephew” was pushed back from its November release date to February 2027, so Imax would not be able to meet those goals.
Universal “The Odyssey” allays these fears. During its opening weekend, the film generated $52 million in worldwide revenue for Imax. The company’s shoots accounted for less than 1% of total screens, but 20% of the film’s worldwide debuts.
The opening of “The Odyssey” was 47% higher than that of Nolan’s previous film, “Oppenheimer.” The biopic grossed over $190 million through Imax throughout its 2023 run.
And the momentum of “The Odyssey” has shown little sign of slowing. The film earned another $11 million on Monday and $10.6 million on Tuesday — the best Tuesday performance ever for the company, according to Imax CEO Rich Gelfond, who spoke to investors on a conference call Thursday.
“Our pre-sales for the second weekend alone would be considered one of our biggest opening weekends ever,” he said. “These numbers prove that we are just warming up.”
It’s still to come to global Imax screens this year Sony And Marvel “Spider-Man: A Whole New Day; » Zach Cregger’s take on “Resident Evil”; Tom Cruise’s new feature film, “Digger”; “Godzilla minus zero; » David Fincher’s “The Adventures of Cliff Booth,” which stars Brad Pitt and is based on Quentin Tarantino’s “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood”; And Paramount “Street fighter.”
SO Warner Bros. and “Dune: Part Three” by Denis Villeneuve will close the year. The first Dune movie made $61 million at Imax theaters at the end of the pandemic, and “Dune: Part Two” earned $147 million worldwide.
“Our momentum continues to translate into demand from our exhibition partners,” Gelfond said.
The company installed 38 Imax systems worldwide during the second quarter, compared to 36 during the same period a year ago. That’s the highest number of second-quarter installations in a decade, Natasha Fernandes, Imax’s chief financial officer, told investors during Thursday’s earnings conference call. Nineteen systems were installed in the first quarter and the company is on track to have between 160 and 175 installations by the end of 2026.
Imax currently has a backlog of 421 contracts for screen construction.
“We continue to see tremendous runway for our global expansion and we continue to innovate in ways that make Imax even more valuable to creators, studios, exhibitors and audiences,” Gelfond said. “This is an incredibly exciting time for our business.”
Correction: This story has been revised to reflect that “Godzilla Minus Zero” is among the films coming to Imax screens this year. A previous version incorrectly stated the name of the film.