Nearly a year after it was shut down due to COVID-19, movie theaters in New York are reopening with a capacity of 25%.
The long-awaited, albeit partial, return of Big Apple cinemas – one of the largest movie markets in the world – comes as coronavirus restrictions ease across the United States. IMAX (IMAX) is one theater chain that wants to take advantage of the economic recovery. The company slumped earnings expectations in the fourth quarter – driven by strong box office performance in Asia.
As COVID-19 restrictions gradually loosen and more people are vaccinated, some still do not feel completely comfortable returning to theaters. However, IMAX CEO Richard Gelfond was different.
“What we see is that it is safe to go to the theaters and that people feel that way. They not only come back, but also come in record numbers,” Gelfond told Yahoo Finance. 45% compared to 2019 during the opening weekend on the Chinese New Year.
In addition, Gelfond added that the Japanese film “Demon Slayer” brought in $ 27 million for the company – the largest IMAX release in Japan of all time.
This is an encouraging sign when it comes to pent-up demand in the United States. Gelfond singled out expected hits such as ‘Black Widow’, ‘Dune’, ‘No Time to Die’ and ‘Top Gun: Maverick’ – all films that were printed in 2021 last year – as a strong major film for the theatre’s return. to help.
“It looks like one of the strongest pages we’ve ever seen,” he said, adding that he was confident American consumers would see a “traditional instant season this summer.”
The U.S. recovery has a while to go, with delays in the film and the reopening restrictions still plaguing the industry. Yet, “in other parts of the world, when real movies all opened up and the cinemas opened, the traffic was phenomenal,” Gelfond added.
Stream against theaters
In the midst of the coronavirus, studios had to get creative with film deployments – preferring to bypass theaters and select streamers.
So will the threat of the flowing boom hamper the return of theater? Gelfond does not seem to think so.
Premium video-on-demand options and movies sent to streaming were good answers to a global pandemic, but once the pandemic is over, and we’ve seen it in other parts of the world, people are screaming to get back to movies and studios realize this, ‘he said.
In December, Warner Bros. (T) shocked the media landscape by announcing plans to air all of its 2021 films on HBO Max – the same day the films hit theaters.
But Gelfond pointed out that even Warner Bros. ‘post-pandemic’ will have a different strategy ‘, and compares a streaming performance of’ Wonder Woman: 1984 ‘with the massive $ 800 million + worldwide box office equipment in the original film.
“The theater window really creates a huge demand for [movies] and help publicize the property. Skipping those windows and just going to the power window does not provide a fraction of the economy of the original model, ‘he continued.
“I do not think what worked for a pandemic would be the right outcome if the world opened up,” he concluded.
Alexandra is a producer and entertainment correspondent at Yahoo Finance. Follow her on Twitter @ alliecanal8193
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