Imax beat Wall Street estimates with its Q2 2024 earnings report, but even the consistent premium format company couldn’t avoid a 9% year-over-year drop in revenue — down to $89 million — thanks to the historically low box office business that kicked off the summer season. Still, the company’s stock popped on Thursday’s earnings, rising over 5% in pre-market trading.
Here are the topline results:
Earnings Per Share: EPS for Imax reached 7 cents per share, on par with Zacks Investment Research’s estimates.
Net Income: Net income was $3.6 million, down 57% from the same frame last year when net income hit $8.4 million thanks to the “Super Mario Bros. Movie,” “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3” and “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse.”
In April and May, only one film, “Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes,” earned an opening weekend of more than $35 million in North America. That took its toll on Imax’s global grosses for the quarter, as it fell 27% year-over-year to $196 million.
A big factor in the underperformance came from poor box office returns for Universal’s “The Fall Guy” and Warner Bros.’ “Furiosa,” both of which failed to eclipse $200 million in global grosses and led to domestic grosses for May falling to the lowest levels seen since the turn of the century.
Of course, Disney/Pixar’s “Inside Out 2” fueled a huge rebound for the box office with a running total of $1.44 billion worldwide, including $38 million from Imax screens that helped salvage such a poor quarter.
“Several signs across our financial and operating performance in the second quarter underscore our building momentum — we beat consensus across most metrics, generated strong cash flow, delivered our most quarterly signings for Imax systems in six years, and expect to install a higher number of Imax systems in 2024 over the year prior,” said Rich Gelfond, CEO of Imax.
Already, Q3 is looking like it will bring the box office the sort of rebound that Imax and the rest of exhibition is hoping for. Starting with “A Quiet Place: Day One” at the end of June, Imax has enjoyed strong turnout for blockbusters like “Despicable Me 4” and “Twisters,” the latter of which grossed $12 million worldwide from Imax screens in its opening weekend.
The riches will continue this weekend with the release of “Deadpool & Wolverine,” which is set to earn the highest opening weekend ever for an R-rated film with tracking projecting a start of at least $170 million.
Imax is also set up to continue expanding its footprint both with local language films in overseas markets with Hollywood’s biggest films. Among the upcoming films shot with Imax cameras are Warner Bros.’ “Joker: Folie a Deux,” Ryan Coogler’s upcoming secret film project with Michael B. Jordan, Paramount’s “Gladiator II,” and Universal’s “Wicked.”
Gelfond noted a record 14 films were shot with Imax cameras in 2025, signaling bright roads ahead.
“With the strikes — and the lingering effects of the pandemic — firmly behind us, we are in an excellent position to fully realize the benefits of our strong, asset-lite business model,” said Gelfond. “The second quarter offered strong evidence that we are at in inflection point in our business; we are on a tear with system sales activity, our system installations are up significantly, and the slate through 2026 is as strong as we’ve ever seen.”
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