Video · 2026-08-10 · 44m · 6 moments

Is IMAX a Screaming Buy? | LFTC

✦ AI generated

timeline · colored by role

Claim◆

Having an IMAX release is an integral component of turning a big movie into a blockbuster, and IMAX sits in the middle of the global content ecosystem as a curator for blockbuster releases.

Gelfond positions IMAX at the center of Hollywood and the global content ecosystem, arguing that a blockbuster breakout now requires an IMAX release — a position the market is only now waking up to.

transcript

Rich Gelfond: We consider ourselves very much in the middle of the Hollywood ecosystem. And it's not just Hollywood, it's the global um content ecosystem. So, we're almost like a curator in a way. So if you have a big movie and you want it released in a way that it's going to turn into a blockbuster or it's going to break out, I think having an IMAX release is an integral um component of that. ... It feels incomplete if there's not an IMAX release concurrent with uh the theatrical release. It it feels almost like h how do they not get IMAX screens. And the first time I really started to feel that way was reading press reports about how voseiferously Tom Cruz was lobbying for more screens for the Mission Impossible two-parter.

Anecdote

IMAX honored its commitment to release Oppenheimer as a 70mm IMAX film despite Paramount's pressure, because loyalty — including to filmmaker Christopher Nolan — is the currency IMAX is built on.

Gelfond recounts how IMAX stood by its Nolan commitment on Oppenheimer despite Paramount pushing for Mission Impossible 7 screens, and extends the same principle to passing on Avengers in favor of a pre-committed Dune 3.

transcript

Rich Gelfond: Tom was on a mission, pun intended. It was Mission Impossible 7. And uh we had dated Oppenheimer with Chris Nolan. ... The narrative that came out of Paramont, which was distributing the film at that time, was you guys are out of your minds. It's a biopic in black and white about a physicist. Why are you wasting screens on highway? ... And you know, Nolan's really one of few people who helped get us to where we are today. Loyalty is a big deal for us. So when we did it, we felt a lot of pressure around us, but we never flinched. ... For Dune 3 ... Avengers was supposed Doomsday supposed to be this summer and they had some production issues and they moved it to Christmas time right against Dune and ... they called and said well can't you do Avengers and ... I said you know we love you guys and we love to do your movie but we have a commitment and that's the currency that we're made of. So, as a result, we're missing out on Avengers.

Mechanism

IMAX's bookings give it more visibility into the future than almost any other business, because it has a public backlog of theaters being installed and films committed through 2028 and 2029.

Countering the idea that IMAX is too transactional because it can't control 2027-28 movies, Gelfond argues the company has unusual visibility: a public theater backlog plus films like Sam Mendes' four Beatles movies and Bond already committed through 2028-29.

transcript

Rich Gelfond: I would argue that we have more visibility into the future than almost any other business cuz if you're a car company, you have zero sales on opening day. If you're IMAX, we have a backlog of theaters that we're installing. We make that public. We have numbers. We give guidance on that. We also now have an tremendous backlog of films. So we have films committed to us for um 28 and we probably have some for 29. ... In 28 we're doing the Beatles uh four movies that Sam Mendy's is doing.

Mechanism

Because filmmakers now pitch IMAX directly and an IMAX release is part of the green-light process at most major studios, IMAX has become more integrated into the ecosystem earlier, giving it a bigger runway.

Gelfond explains how filmmakers and studios now commit to IMAX early in development, sometimes before a distributor exists — as with F1 — making an IMAX release part of the green-light process at most major studios.

transcript

Rich Gelfond: One of the things that's happened in our evolution is we're getting pitched now direct directly by filmmakers. ... people have won Academy Awards and say we're thinking of doing this movie two years out you know we would you guys sign on to that ... So the business like you know we're part of the green light process now and I would say at most of the major studios an IMAX release is part of the green light. ... For the next Mission Impossible, Mission 8, we committed to right when mission seven after it got done playing and Paramount agreed to put up a fair amount of money.... So the kind of short answer to your question is as we become more important in the ecosystem, we become more integrated and earlier on so we have a bigger runway.

extends · 1

Data

IMAX merchandising is a new, high-margin revenue driver — IMAX camera-shaped popcorn buckets for Odyssey sold out in hours and 20,000 film strips sold in 90 minutes.

Gelfond points to IMAX's first real merchandising push as a new monetization lever: Odyssey IMAX-camera popcorn buckets sold out repeatedly in hours, including in China in 60 seconds, and 20,000 film strips sold in 90 minutes.

transcript

Rich Gelfond: We we never really had a merchandising effort and this year we started and we started small. So for um Odyssey we made popcorn buckets.... They look like an IMAX camera. And my team was fairly conservative. So, we put 2500 on sale and they sold in 2 hours. ... By the end of this in China, we put like 2500 on sale and I think we sold them in 60 seconds. So, um, we're selling film strips now for the Odyssey. We sold 20,000 in 90 minutes. So, I think that's definitely an area where we're going to capitalize.

Mechanism

The constraint on expanding 70mm IMAX is pure economics: film prints cost about $50,000 each, projectors are more expensive still and largely don't exist, so the model only works in high-traffic locations.

Responding to the idea that 70mm IMAX should be everywhere, Gelfond explains the economics cap its expansion: a $50,000 print, even costlier projectors that were built decades ago and are scarce, so it only pays off in the highest-traffic venues.

transcript

Rich Gelfond: The issue is purely economics with more film projectors. So, one print at one theater, so think of the one that shows at 68th Street here in Manhattan, cost $50,000. ... The projector is more expensive than that. ... And they were built 50 years ago and they don't really exist, but we're always scavenging and finding more. ... So I know everybody says they want it, but you know it it it the model just doesn't work where you could have a lot of [them].

Highlight slides

IMAX as the global blockbuster curator✦ from: Having an IMAX release is an integral component of turning a big movie into a blockbuster, and IMAX sits in the middle of the global content ecosystem as a curator for blockbuster releases.

Related episodes

Video · Machine Learning Street Talk

Intelligence is collective, not artificial — Prof. Michael I. Jordan (UC Berkeley / Inria)

→

Video · The Rest Is History

Friend of the Show: Tom Holland Meets Tom Holland to Chat All Things The Odyssey

→

Article · Interconnects

Kimi K3: The open-weights escalation

→