The release of James Cameron’s “Avatar: Fire and Ash” capped off a record year for Imax, which reported $125.8 million in revenue for the final quarter of 2025 and a company record annual income of $410 million.
The quarterly revenue, which came from $336 million in box office grosses, marks a 35% year-over-year increase from the preceding period, with adjusted net income of $32.6 million and earnings attributable to shareholders of 58 cents per share, beating projections of 45 cents per share. Adjusted EBITDA also rose 53% to $57.1 million.
Imax’s years-long campaign to expand the number of local language films it screens in its premium auditoriums paid off in a big way in 2025, as hits like Chengdu Coco’s “Ne Zha 2” and Aniplex/Toho/Sony’s “Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle” pushed Imax to $405 million in box office grosses from non-Hollywood films and $1.28 billion overall, both company records.
“2025 was a transformational year for IMAX, in which we took our performance to the next level and firmly established IMAX as a premier global platform for entertainment and events,” said Rich Gelfond, CEO of IMAX. “We exceeded virtually every target for box office and financial performance for the year and expect to deliver a record $1.4 billion in global box office in 2026.”
Imax installed 160 new auditoriums worldwide in 2025, hitting the top end of its projections for the start of the year as it projects an additional 160-175 installations in 2026.
On the 2026 slate, Imax’s next film on its screens will be Paramount/Spyglass’ “Scream VI” this weekend, followed by Warner Bros.’ “The Bride!” Top films over the rest of the year include Marvel’s “Avengers: Doomsday,” Denis Villeneuve’s “Dune: Part Three,” and Christopher Nolan’s “The Odyssey,” the latter of which will be the first feature film shot entirely with Imax cameras.
Imax stock jumped 4% in after hours trading to $36.83/share at time of writing.
More to come…