Film technology and big screen exhibition company IMAX has just announced its financial results with respect to the third quarter of 2022. Despite bearing losses to the tune of $9 million, the company has generated revenue of $68.8 million for the said period, thereby registering a 21% increase from last year’s figures for the same quarter.
The revenue increase was because of global box office numbers, which witnessed a comparative increase of 25%. And the interesting aspect about IMAX’s increased box-office revenue figure is that around one-third of these numbers have come from the local language movies segment.
While Hollywood blockbuster films such as ‘Thor: Love and Thunder’ and ‘Top Gun: Maverick’ certainly contributed greatly to IMAX’s box-office revenues, IMAX has acknowledged the fact it were the local language movie titles which helped the company in its revenue growth.
And one of these local language titles is Mani Ratnam’s magnum opus ‘Ponniyin Selvan: Part One’, which was released in theatres on 30th September 2022. The star-studded Indian film has purportedly grossed around Rs.500 crore at the box-office worldwide (including IMAX screens).
Besides ‘Ponniyin Selvan: Part One’, other local language third quarter movie releases which reportedly had a positive effect on IMAX’s revenues were the Chinese sci-fi comedy film ‘Moon Man’ and the Japanese animated fantasy action-adventure movie ‘One Piece Red’.
While mentioning local language films’ revenue contribution (including India), IMAX CEO Rich Gelfond has also said that in the year 2019, local language titles formed merely 2% of total IMAX box office figure. On the other hand, in 2022, the contribution has increased to 35%. Moreover, IMAX is expecting 30-40 local language releases next year in 2023 as well.
Although apparently not mentioned officially, another third quarter Indian film other than ‘Ponniyin Selvan: Part One’ which is expected to have also contributed positively to IMAX’s revenues is Ayan Mukerjee’s superhero venture ‘Brahmastra: Part One’, which grossed around Rs.430 crores at the box office. Moreover, previously, S.S. Rajamouli’s ‘RRR’ too weaved its magic at the box-office and turned out to be a premium IMAX experience.
For now, all eyes will now be on two highly anticipated potential blockbusters: James Cameron’s ‘Avatar: The Way of Water’ and Marvel’s ‘Black Panther: Wakanda Forever’, which are set to release in theatres (including IMAX screens) on 16th December and 11th November, respectively. We earnestly hope that local language titles including big-ticket Indian films become an integral part of IMAX’s portfolio in the near future. With an ever-increasing number of IMAX screens and related infrastructure in India, it’s no longer a distant dream.
We’re hiring!
We are hiring two full-time junior to mid-level writers with the option to work remotely. You need to work a 5-hour shift and be available to write. Interested candidates should email their sample articles to [email protected]. Applications without a sample article will not be considered.
