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- [00:00]
The Hartford Representative
When you're running a business, the best days are the ones where priorities stay on track. For midsize and large companies, that isn't always easy. Risk can touch multiple parts of an organization at the same time, often in ways that aren't immediately obvious. It might involve property liability or cyber. It could stem from regulatory requirements or challenges tied to a specific industry or the scale of an operation. At that level, managing risk becomes an ongoing discipline, not a one time decision. At the Hartford, the focus is on helping businesses manage risk before it turns into something more disruptive. That means working with companies to identify where they're exposed, decide what matters most, and put practical standards in place so risk is managed as part of day to day operations. And when losses do happen, the Hartford can pair that risk control work with insurance coverage grounded in underwriting, risk engineering and claims experience developed over time. Learn more at the Hartford.com/risk mitigation
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Bloomberg Host
Bloomberg Audio Studios Podcasts Radio News let's get to our top story this hour. It's one of the year's most anticipated films delivering big time in the box office. Christopher Nolan's The Odyssey, the number one film in the US and Canada in its debut weekend, posting nearly $125 million in ticket sales. Now a large portion of the weekend's box office generated from screenings in IMAX's giant auditoriums, many of which were sold out months in advance. Let's discuss with Richard Gelfand, he is the CEO of imax, joining us on set. Rich, it's great to see you.
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Richard Gelfond
It's great to be here. Thank you.
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Bloomberg Host
So I want to start there. You know, you think about the large auditoriums, that's where people want to see the Odyssey. It's very hard to do. I mean there's been viral social media posts that even if you want to see a 2:00am, a 3:00am screening, it's sold out, you can't get in. So I mean there a plan to expand this to more theaters, more auditoriums around the world.
- [02:04]
Richard Gelfond
So I've got it divided into pieces. One is there's lots of availability in IMAX globally and we have about 2,000 screens. A subset of that is film screens because Chris Nolan was the first director to ever film an entire movie with IMAX cameras. So if you want to see it captured in IMAX film, projected in film, you can only do that at the film theaters. Our network overall all is done very well is a record opening for us. We did $52 million on a like for like basis. The highest we've ever had. And in fact it was almost 50% above Oppenheimer, which you know, went on to be a huge success.
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Bloomberg Host
Right.
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Richard Gelfond
So the question is about. There are lots of IMAX digital theaters. The film ones are rare. In a way though, those theaters are like the Rolls Royce and the economics around them are very high end. You have to put them in big auditorium with a very big special to made screen. Film prints are $50,000 for one print at one theater. So you have to get tremendous amounts of capacity. So fortunately in the places it is, it's worked very well. So at the TCL in L. A, we did $500,000 in one day and one screen, which is an incredible number. And as you said in your intro, people are flying places. Economic model doesn't really work to put IMAX film on every corner. But fortunately there are a lot of digital theaters so people can go to those.
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Bloomberg Host
Absolutely. So I hear what you're saying there, but I mean knowing what you know now about, you know, what a hit this has turned out to be, what demand has looked like, I mean in the run up, would you have planned anything differently about this rollout?
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Richard Gelfond
Well, for Oppenheimer we only had 30 film theaters and we have 40% more for this one. We knew it was going to be very big, partly because it was the first film shot completely with IMAX cameras. We invented a new camera in order for Chris to make this film, partly because we know Chris and conquering a story like the Odyssey, he thinks big and we are big in a lot of ways. So we knew there's not really much we could have done. We kind of scoured the world to try and find film projectors and you know, we added shows in almost every theater. So we added film in 42 theaters. We entered shows between midnight and 3am I mean the 6ams were sold out in London. At the BFI we've already sold out a large number of shows in weeks seven and eight. So just stop and think about that two months from now. So we were prepared, but there's not more we could have done really.
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Bloomberg Host
So thinking about the bigger picture, IMAX expects that 2026 will be its best year ever at the global box office with some 1.4 billion project. How will you hit that number? How much do you need the sort of big Hollywood hits to carry the load compared to the local language international blockbusters.
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Richard Gelfond
So we're a portfolio of films. Last year we did 1.2 billion in the first half of the year. This year we did about 600 million. And then you fast forward to the second half. So you have Odyssey, which is going to be one of our biggest movies of all time. We've got, in select locations, Spider man. We have Dune 3, which was filmed with IMAX cameras, also by Denis Villeneuve. And that's around Christmas. And tickets have already sold out for that. We have Avengers in certain territories, a new Tom Cruise movie, so we think that goal is attainable.
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Bloomberg Host
Another more general question. In May, there were reports that IMAX was exploring a sale and has approached entertainment companies as potentially potential buyers. What would be the rationale for doing that and are you able to give us any updates on such a process?
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Richard Gelfond
Well, we've said many times that when we sign a contract, we'll let everybody know. So it's our corporate policy not to. Not to comment on these kind of rumors. And with all the turnover in the media space and, you know, the M and A activity, it's not surprising that that rumor would be out there. But, you know, we'll let you know if it happens.
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Bloomberg Host
Yeah, please do. Ideally, you know, right here, this set with this show.
- [06:40]
Richard Gelfond
Should I put you on speed dial on my cell phone?
- [06:43]
Bloomberg Host
That would be great. You know, just put us on speakerphone in the room where it happens. But getting back to sort of the movie theater biz, you did mention that this is the Odyssey, the first movie to be filmed entirely with IMAX cameras. Here you've seen other films partly filmed with your cameras. Do you think that? And have you seen any more directors being more encouraged to shoot either primarily or entirely with IMAX cameras, given the success that we've seen with Christopher Nolan and with the Odyssey?
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Richard Gelfond
So this year we released 12 films that were shot with IMAX cameras. What makes this different is it was shot with a new film camera that we invented with the Nolans specifically for this project. So that took a significant amount of resources, both capital and human capital, and we invented something called a bullet blimp. IMAX cameras traditionally are noisy because the film spools are huge, but the blimp takes away all external noise. So it allows you to do close ups where the actors aren't acting in front of a refrigerator. It's very quiet, so it opens up a whole new avenue for us. But digital cameras, which you've used for a long time, many pictures this year were filmed with digital cameras, including the Mandalorian End Use Digital Cameras. And Hail Mary was captured with digital cameras but released on film. And we've done that for years. But I do think this will create more demand. And as we look forward to 2027, I think there'll probably be five or more films released on film.
- [08:32]
Bloomberg Host
All right, Rich, that's a good place to leave it. Always great to see you. That is Richard Gelfon. He is the CEO of imax.
- [08:39]
The Hartford Representative
When you're running a business, the best days are the ones where priorities stay on track. For midsize and large companies, risk can affect multiple parts of the organization at once, from property and liability to cyber and regulatory challenges. At that level, managing risk becomes an ongoing discipline. At the Hartford, the focus is on helping businesses manage risk before it turns into something more disruptive. And when losses do happen, that work is paired with insurance coverage shaped by years of underwriting, risk engineering and claims experience. Learn more@thehartford.com riskmitigation policies provided by Hartford Fire Insurance Company and its property and casualty affiliates Hartford, Connecticut.