After getting through a tough first quarter of 2022, Imax met Wall Street revenue projections after a strong early summer fueled by films like “Top Gun: Maverick” and “Jurassic World: Dominion,” though it still reported a $2.9 million loss due to COVID-19 problems in China.
From a reported revenue of $74 million — up 45% year-over-year from $51 million in Q2 2021 — Imax reported a diluted loss per share of 5 cents. That is up from a diluted loss per share of 23 cents last quarter and loss per share of 16 cents in Q2 2021, though below the profit of 17 cents per share reported in Q4 2021 off the success of “Spider-Man: No Way Home.”
Imax’s write-down is largely attributable to COVID-19 closures at 400 of their Chinese locations to start the quarter, including all locations in Shanghai. This is in spite robust rebound of the summer box office pushed quarterly grosses from Imax screens worldwide to $247 million, with $98 million coming from “Top Gun: Maverick.” The Tom Cruise film was so successful that Imax plans to bring the film back to their screens in mid-August along with live events from its nascent Imax Live venture to navigate the tentpole-scare August and September release slate.
“With three consecutive $25 million-plus global openings for the first time in its history, Imax continued to affirm its position as a critical launch platform for major entertainment franchises,” CEO Rich Gelfond said in a statement.
“As the year progresses with key titles such as Brad Pitt’s ‘Bullet Train’, Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson’s ‘Black Adam’, ‘Black Panther: Wakanda Forever’ and ‘Avatar: The Way of Water’ and a remarkable offering of franchise tentpoles through 2023, we are focused on driving future growth for the Company across our global network, content portfolio, and technology platform,” Gelfond continued.