Thanks largely to booming box office numbers and equally substantial growth in theater presence, Imax Corporation saw profits double in its recent fourth quarter.
Imax (Image Maximum) develops and creates systems for both its large-scale, immersive movie theaters and its namesake film format (a horizontal variant of 70mm). The company also establishes revenue sharing programs with customers who can lease and buy Imax's signature products, as well.
The first Imax film, Tiger Child, was screened at Osaka, Japan's Expo '70. The first permanent Imax theater was set up in Toronto, Canada's Cinesphere at Ontario Place in 1971 and is still in operation today.
In its auspicious fourth quarter, Imax says revenue rose to $77.8 million, an increase of 17 percent, according to The Wrap.
"Net income rose to $12.9 million, or 19 cents per share, from $6.3 million, or 9 cents per share, a year earlier," says The Wrap.
With the rampant success of such Imax box office smashes as The Dark Knight Rises — which garnered an incredible $50 million in its first two weeks alone — and Harry Potter and Transformers sequels that helped Imax's profits to rise 25 percent in 2011, Imax continues to remain more than a mere industry staple.
In an attempt to create a true spectacle of a movie experience, more and more filmmakers are turning to the format that, along with amplified 3-D technology and other recent advances in the business, may be taking over as the only way to go.
"I'm really stoked about what [Avatar] is going to look like in IMAX," said filmmaker James Cameron via Comic Con in 2009. "The 3-D is an immersive experience, but in Imax Avatar is overwhelming, almost intoxicating. You'll be drawn through the screen into a fantasy that seems utterly real even as it defies description."
"In our troubled economic times, audiences around the world are going to need more than ever a place to escape into a fantasy world, and with Avatar in Imax, they'll be able to live and breathe in that world, and they won't want to come back," Cameron added.
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