Imax
IMAX
recently announced that
Walt Disney’s
DIS
A
vatar: The Way Of Water
had made a massive opening as it recorded around $435 million globally during the first weekend of release.
Of this, Imax delivered $48.8 million, which majorly came from the box office of North America and China as they recorded $16.5 million and $15.8 million, respectively, making A
vatar: The Way Of Water
IMAX’s biggest December global opening of all time.
Avatar
, the prequel to this one, had also been a hit as it was the highest-grossing film back in 2009 and made $2.789 billion. This long-awaited sequel has also shown a great start as fans are enjoying the cinematic experience of the innovations and technology used in the film. It is expected that the movie will have strong legs at the global box office for IMAX in the coming weeks as well, which will aid Imax’s top line.
Scheduled Slate Of Releases Create Bright Prospects
Imax has been benefitting from several big hits besides Avatar.
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever
hit the theatres on Nov 11 and generated global sales of $22.6 million from 800 IMAX screens worldwide while
Black Adam
too pumped in nearly $11 million.
This could likely continue the growth for Imax in fourth-quarter fiscal 2022 after its revenues in the third-quarter fiscal 2022 increased 21% to $69 million.
IMAX Corporation Price and Consensus
IMAX Corporation price-consensus-chart
|
IMAX Corporation Quote
The global box office in the coming year is anticipated to recover, given that covid restrictions have been lifted and people are moving outdoors comfortably. As quoted by
Deadline
, Gower Street Analytics is projecting the global box office to hit $29 billion, repping a 12% gain year over year.
On the heels of this, Imax has also scheduled big releases for itself in the year 2023, which include multiple Marvel films like
Captain Marvel, Guardians of The Galaxy
and
Antman,
multiple DC films including
Aquaman
and
The Flash
, the highly anticipated new
Mission Impossible
, the latest
Fast and Furious
movie and Christopher Nolan’s
Oppenheimer
as well.
Along with the movie lineup, Imax is also strengthening key partnerships with global exhibitors, including agreements for new theatres and installations across Asia, Europe, the Middle East and North America to expand its presence and add to its revenues.
This includes a nine-theater deal in China with Wanda and an additional deal for six new locations in Saudi Arabia, which Imax closed in third-quarter fiscal 2022.The box office in China improved from $26 million to $39 million in the mentioned quarter, an increase of 50% year-over-year.
Imax Continues to Face Threat From the Streaming Industry
Despite Imax’s solid movie lineup, an important factor to consider is that the viewing pattern of people has shifted to streaming services due to the long period of lockdowns that restricted them from accessing movie theatres. Companies like
Netflix
NFLX
and
Amazon
AMZN
have gained huge traction and their large viewership has drawn producers to release films on such platforms.
Films like
You People
, which has been directed by Kenya Barris and produced by Jonah Hill, have been brought in by Netflix and are set to aid its library in 2023.
Shotgun Wedding
, which earlier had scheduled a theatrical release, is now set to stream on Amazon Prime as Amazon Studios bought its rights. The rom-com film starring Jennifer Lopez and Josh Duhamel is expected to bolster the viewer base for Amazon.
Since these movies are seeing an online release its cuts down the opportunities for cinema houses like IMAX to further expand its content library.Per
Technavio
, the online movie market size is expected to grow by $22.09 billion from 2021 to 2026, which could pose a serious threat to Imax.
The shares of Imax, which currently has a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold), have declined 22% year to date against the Zacks
Consumer Discretionary
Sector, which fell by 36.4% in the same time frame.
You can see
the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here
.
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