“In Japan alone, our per screen average for the trailing 12 months is a staggering $1.9 million.”
IMAX reported in its Q3 2022 Earnings Conference Call that it has missed Wall Street’s third-quarter earnings projections. According to IMAX, this was due to “a temporary slowdown in the Hollywood pipeline,” but there was a bright spot for the company: local language films are performing better than ever on IMAX. IMAX CEO Rich Gelfond specifically cited Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero as an example of “the increasingly exportability of local films.”
Gelfond said “we have only scratched the surface” of the potential of local-language films. He explained that prior to COVID, audiences in overseas markets generally viewed IMAX as a platform for Hollywood films, but this changed during the gap of Hollywood titles through the pandemic. During this time, IMAX partnered with local studios and filmmakers to pivot the local language films. He noted that “In Japan alone, our per screen average for the trailing 12 months is a staggering $1.9 million.”
He further cited “Demon Slayer and Shinji Evangelion” as top-performing IMAX releases in Japan, referring to Demon Slayer – Kimetsu no Yaiba – The Movie: Mugen Train and Evangelion: 3.0+1.0: Thrice Upon A Time.
Besides Japan, China, and South Korea, he identified India as a territory of interest, highlighting the popular RRR film as a success on IMAX screens both in India and abroad.
In the third quarter, approximately 30% of IMAX’s global box office was derived from local language films. The company is targeting 30 to 40 local language releases worldwide in 2023.
