The first quarter of the 2025 box office was a poor one for American theaters, but Imax was able to avoid taking a hit in their Q1 earnings thanks in good part to the record-smashing success of the animated sequel “Ne Zha 2” in China.
In the company’s earnings report released Wednesday, Imax reported a 10% year-over-year increase in revenue to $87 million, beating consensus Wall Street projections of $84 million. Imax also reported net income of $8 million with an adjusted EBITDA of $37 million, up 15% from Q1 2024.
More topline results below:
EPS: Net income attributed to shareholders was reported at $2.3 million, or 4 cents per share. Zacks Investment Research had projected EPS of 13 cents per share.
Box office: Grosses for Imax screenings in Q1 reached a record $298 million, with $164 million of that — or 55% — coming from “Ne Zha 2.” That’s six times more than the $27 million made by Imax’s next highest grossing film for the quarter, “Captain America: Brave New World.”
Making more than 95% of its $2.1 billion gross from Chinese audiences starting on Lunar New Year weekend, the Chengdu Coco Cartoon production is now the highest grossing animated film of all time and the first to cross $2 billion.
Network expansion: During the first quarter of 2025, Imax installed 21 systems compared to 15 systems in Q1 2024. Of those installations, 13 systems were under sales arrangements, compared to five last year.
The success of “Ne Zha 2” is the most prominent example of Imax’s efforts to diversify the types of films it supports with its screens paying off. While the Q1 U.S. box office fell nearly 12% year-over-year to $1.4 billion, the historic success of “Ne Zha 2” allowed the company to avoid the drop in revenue that major movie theater chains like AMC and Cinemark are expected to report in the weeks ahead.
“Our results for the First Quarter demonstrate growth across key strategic areas of our business — including local language and alternative content, and system sales and installations — and underscore the strength of our diversified content portfolio, with a record-breaking Chinese New Year and strong alternative content lineup more than offsetting a slow start to the Hollywood slate,” CEO Rich Gelfond said in a statement.
Imax stock has held steady at $24/share in after-hours trading at time of writing.
More to come…
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