IMAX CEO Richard Gelfond is one of the most bullish people in Hollywood on the subject of theatrical moviegoing. There’s a reason for that. Coming off of a year defined by a yo-yo-ing pandemic that continued to strangle the traditional movie theater business, but for a few, glowing exceptions—like Shang-Chi and Spider-Man: No Way Home—IMAX’s global box office was up 146% in 2021 over 2020 with revenue of $638 million. On Spider-Man alone, IMAX has generated over $83 million so far.
It’s not where the company was pre-pandemic—in 2019, IMAX grossed over $1 billion worldwide—but it’s a robust showing for these times. And Gelfond believes that the success of films like the new Spider-Man, which was released exclusively in theaters in December (seeing as how Sony doesn’t have its own streaming platform), is proof that Hollywood needs to stop throwing so much of its weight behind streaming. Indeed, he believes that Hollywood studios are far too besotted with a “Wall…
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Source : fastcompany.com
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