{"id":462504,"date":"2026-05-01T02:44:16","date_gmt":"2026-05-01T02:44:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/462504\/"},"modified":"2026-05-01T02:44:16","modified_gmt":"2026-05-01T02:44:16","slug":"imax-revenues-profits-drop-despite-avatar-3-project-hail-mary","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/462504\/","title":{"rendered":"Imax Revenues, Profits Drop Despite ‘Avatar 3,’ ‘Project Hail Mary’"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tJames Cameron\u2019s otherworldly blockbuster \u201cAvatar: Fire and Ash\u201d and the Ryan Gosling-led space epic \u201cProject Hail Mary\u201d resulted in big business for Imax<\/a>. But those visually striking tentpoles weren\u2019t enough to boost the company\u2019s profits and revenues, both of which were down during the first quarter of 2026.<\/p>\n

\n\tImax logged $81 million for the three-month period ending in March, down 6.5% from the $86.7 million reported in the same quarter a year ago. The big-screen company reported a net income of $6.2 million, down 26% from the $8.2 million delivered in Q1 in 2025. Meanwhile, adjusted earnings-per-share rose to 17 cents, up from the per-share loss of 13 cents in the same year-ago period. These earnings were enough to beat Wall Street expectations; analysts on average expected $79.9 million in Q1 revenue and adjusted earnings of 15 cents per share. <\/p>\n

\n\tImax\u2019s worldwide tally stood at $260 million, down 13% year-over-year. Though a strong result, ticket sales couldn\u2019t compare to the same point in 2025 when China\u2019s \u201cNe Zha 2\u201d was smashing box office records with $2.2 billion globally; Imax contributed $164 million of that haul. This quarter\u2019s top-earning titles were last December\u2019s \u201cAvatar: Fire and Ash\u201d and \u201cProject Hail Mary,\u201d as well as China\u2019s comedy \u201cPegasus 3\u201d and Paramount\u2019s slasher sequel \u201cScream 7.\u201d Amazon MGM\u2019s \u201cProject Hail Mary,\u201d which was filmed with Imax cameras, has been particularly successful with $92 million worldwide on the company\u2019s premium screens, representing 18% of the film\u2019s total box office tally.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThe breakout success of\u00a0\u2018Project Hail Mary\u2019\u00a0\u2014 a\u00a0Filmed\u00a0For\u00a0Imax\u00a0release that more than doubled our\u00a0initial\u00a0box office projections \u2014\u00a0demonstrates\u00a0what a well-crafted blockbuster can achieve when it leans fully into the Imax platform,\u201d said Imax\u2019s chief financial officer Natasha Fernandes. \u201cWe have several tentpoles this year from the most successful filmmakers in Hollywood that will do just that.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tImax has been key in the box office\u2019s post-COVID recovery; audiences have been gravitating toward the biggest and brightest screens to distinguish from the at-home experience of watching a movie. Fernandes mentioned anticipated titles such as Christopher Nolan\u2019s \u201cThe Odyssey,\u201d Denis Villeneuve\u2019s \u201cDune: Part III,\u201d the \u201cStar Wars\u201d spinoff \u201cMandalorian and Grogu\u201d and Greta Gerwig\u2019s \u201cNarnia,\u201d all of which utilize the company\u2019s technology. With an assist from those movies and others, Imax expects to deliver a record $1.4 billion in 2026.<\/p>\n

\n\tMeanwhile Imax\u2019s CEO Rich Gelfond shared a health update<\/a>, noting that he\u2019s gradually resuming leadership duties as he transitions from a temporary medical leave of absense.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cMy recovery from pneumonia is progressing well. I have been discharged from the hospital and will continue to focus on my health in the coming weeks,\u201d Gelfond said in a statement. \u201cAs I transition back from medical leave, I am gradually re-engaging in the business and involved in all strategic decisions at Imax. The management team is doing an outstanding job and will continue with their day-to-day responsibilities.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"James Cameron\u2019s otherworldly blockbuster \u201cAvatar: Fire and Ash\u201d and the Ryan Gosling-led space epic \u201cProject Hail Mary\u201d resulted…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":462505,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[263],"tags":[18,117,19,103333,17,327],"class_list":["post-462504","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-movies","tag-eire","tag-entertainment","tag-ie","tag-imax","tag-ireland","tag-movies"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/116497027317496001","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/462504","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=462504"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/462504\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/462505"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=462504"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=462504"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=462504"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}