Topline
The IMAX Corporation on Tuesday said it grossed $728 million at the global box office this summer, a staggering 73% jump over its previous summer record and capping off a dramatic post-pandemic comeback for a company whose stock price has rallied nearly 70% in the last year.
Christopher Nolan attends Universal Pictures ‘The Odyssey’ premiere on July 11, 2026 in Mumbai, India. (Photo by Aalok Soni/Getty Images for Universal Pictures)
Getty Images for Universal Pictures
Key Facts
IMAX announced the new global revenue record, which captures ticket sales from Memorial Day through Labor Day weekend, on Tuesday and said Christopher Nolan’s “The Odyssey” was responsible for much of the success.
The film, which the company said shattered “virtually every IMAX record that lay in its path,” grossed $485 million of the total in eight weeks and delivered IMAX’s best-ever Labor Day weekend.
That number is almost twice as much as the second highest-grossing IMAX release (James Cameron’s 2009 “Avatar”) and there’s still weeks left in its theatrical run.
IMAX’s 1,800 global screens—fewer than 1% of the world’s total movie screens—captured 5.8% of the worldwide box office over the summer, the highest market share percentage in the company’s history for the summer blockbuster period.
A stunning 30% of the $1.6 billion worldwide box office total for “The Odyssey” so far was collected for IMAX showings, despite the company’s proportionally tiny amount of movie screens.
WHAT TO WATCH FOR
How much IMAX makes this year. The company is projecting $1.4 billion in global box office revenue with the help of “Resident Evil,” “Digger,” “Street Fighter,” “Godzilla Minus Zero,” “The Further Mis-Adventures of Cliff Booth” and “Dune: Part Three,” which doesn’t release until December but has already delivered among the highest IMAX pre-sales of all time.
BIG NUMBER
70%. That’s how much IMAX stock has rallied in the last 12 months and the share value has risen nearly 250% since September of 2021, when Hollywood was still majorly struggling under the stress of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Key background
Nolan’s “The Odyssey,” which stars Matt Damon, Tom Holland and Anne Hathaway, is the first feature film ever shot in its entirety using 70mm IMAX film cameras. When studios say other movies were “filmed for IMAX,” they either used IMAX-certified digital cameras or shoot only select action sequences on real IMAX film stock while using smaller camera formats for quiet dialogue scenes. “The Odyssey,” however, used IMAX film stock for 100% of its runtime, and invented new camera equipment to make it possible. That new format sent movie enthusiasts rushing to the screen and highlighted a change in consumer habits that prove people are still willing to go to theaters—at least for something special. Post-pandemic moviegoers are increasingly selective and audiences are now adding format (and a fear of missing out on a rare experience) to the top of the list for things they value.
SURPRISING FACT
Despite the outstanding success of “The Odyssey,” no other director has committed to shooting a feature film completely on 70mm IMAX film. But several major filmmakers are pushing closer to Nolan’s achievement by integrating the quieter IMAX film cameras built for “The Odyssey” for major portions of upcoming blockbusters, including Denis Villeneuve (“Dune: Part Three”), Ryan Coogler (“Black Panther 3”) and J.J. Abrams (“The Great Beyond”).
Tangent
The domestic summer box office hit an all-time record this Labor Day weekend with $4.76 billion grossed domestically since Memorial Day. Revenues surpassed a long-held record set in 2013 at $4.75 billion and flew past 2019’s $4.3 billion, which has been considered the number to beat since the pandemic. “Spider-Man: Brand New Day,” which has set a mountain of records since it was released July 31, has led the way with a $924 million domestic theatrical run so far, and “Toy Story 5,” “The Odyssey,” “Backrooms” and “Obsession” helped fuel the summer return to the movies. This is only the second time since the pandemic that the summer box office hit the $4 billion mark (“Barbie” and “Oppenheimer,” another Nolan hit, pushed the 2023 box office to the milestone) and the first summer in history where each of the four summer months (May, June, July and August) each hit the $1 billion mark.