Shares of Mississauga, Ont.-based IMAX Corp. were hovering near record highs on Friday, following a second-quarter earnings beat and the theatrical release of Christopher Nolan’s “The Odyssey,” the first full-length film ever shot entirely with IMAX cameras. “You can’t buy an Odyssey ticket for the next three weeks; we are sold out,” Chad Beynon, senior gaming, lodging and theatres analyst at Macquarie Capital, told BNN Bloomberg in an interview on Thursday. “It’s really just become kind of a cult-like following for this IMAX experience.” Beynon said the success of “The Odyssey” comes after a strong 2025 for IMAX, and he anticipates momentum to continue building through the rest of this year. “They have a great outlook in the back half of 2026 and 2027,” he said. “I think what’s been great is there are more directors like Nolan and more movies like ‘The Odyssey’ that want to be filmed with IMAX cameras and want to be shown in this premium large format exhibition, and customers are certainly voting with their wallets.” “The Odyssey” grossed US$264.1 million in global ticket sales during its first weekend in theatres, including $124.5 million in the U.S. and Canada, Universal Pictures said earlier this week. ‘Premium experience’ There are 41 theatres in the world, nine of which are located in Canada, that are showing “The Odyssey” on 70-mm IMAX film, the premium large-scale format that the movie was designed to be seen in. According to IMAX, demand for tickets to those exclusive showings was so high that more than 50 theatres across North America added showtimes between midnight and 7 a.m. Beynon said IMAX is tapping into an entertainment product that is seen as “an affordable luxury.” “I think moviegoers certainly want a premium experience, they like the 70-foot screen versus the 70-inch screen in their homes and it’s a community feel,” he said. “People want to be around other people, people want to feel and see the reactions of other people, so IMAX has done an incredible job creating that… for a movie like “The Odyssey,” they had about 20 per cent of box office tickets in North America on just one per cent of screens.” Q2 earnings beat Beynon’s comments came after IMAX reported earnings that beat analyst expectations in its second quarter. The company, which keeps its books in U.S. dollars, posted quarterly revenue of $103 million, up 12 per cent year-over-year. IMAX reported net income per diluted share of 27 cents, up 35 per cent year-over-year, as well as record adjusted earnings per share of 43 cents in the quarter, up 65 per cent from the same quarter in 2025. “We are very pleased with our strong results for the second quarter and look forward to building on our momentum to deliver global box office growth, network expansion worldwide, new opportunities for our brand and continued value for shareholders,” said IMAX CEO Rich Gelfond. Beynon said upcoming 2026 films such as Canadian filmmaker Denis Villeneuve’s “Dune: Part Three” and “Spider-Man: Brand New Day” bode well for IMAX through the rest of this year and beyond. “The slate looks great for the foreseeable future and we’re predicting double-digit earnings growth through 2028,” he said.
