During IMAX’s Q3 2022 earnings call this week, the proprietary film format company announced that they had missed their Wall Street’s third-quarter earnings projections due to "a temporary slowdown in the Hollywood pipeline" but was helped by the global releases of locally made films from countries around the world, specifically citing anime and Indian films, which made up 30% of total box office revenue for in the quarter.
Speaking to shareholders, IMAX CEO Rich Gelfond explained that “Successful global releases for IMAX films including India’s RRR, and Japan’s Dragonball Super Hero are demonstrating the increased exportability of local films.” With around “30 and 40 local language films” planned to be released globally for the 2023 year.
Specifically singling out the Japanese market, Gelfond spoke about the partnership with Toho, where they have released “between five and ten movies” together. Gelfond said that those films have done well for both companies in the IMAX format and that they both want to continue to partner and expand it further. He cited “Demon Slayer and Shinji Evangelion” as “two of the biggest movies of all time in Japan and they were filmed in IMAX,” both of which were distributed by Toho in partnership with another company: Aniplex for Demon Slayer and Toei for Evangelion.
RELATED: Evangelion 3.0+1.0 Breaks IMAX Records in Japan on Opening Day
Both Demon Slayer -Kimetsu no Yaiba- The Movie: Mugen Train and Evangelion 3.0+1.0: Thrice Upon a Time were released day and date in IMAX theaters and regular theaters in Japan, with Shin Evangelion breaking first-day IMAX records in Japan and Mugen Train holding the three-day record.
Gelfond also revealed that “in Japan alone, [IMAXs] per screen average for the trailing 12 months is a staggering $1.9 million.”
Right now in Japan, Sword Art Online -Progressive- Scherzo of Deep Night was recently released in IMAX formats on day one, with Suzume and THE FIRST SLAM DUNK to follow later this month and the next. One Piece Film Red, the biggest film in Japan of 2022. was also released in IMAX formats earlier this year in Japan and is also being shown in the format internationally right now.
Sources: Deadline, IMAX via seekingalpha
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Daryl Harding is a Senior Japan Correspondent for Crunchyroll News. He also runs a YouTube channel about Japan stuff called TheDoctorDazza, tweets at @DoctorDazza, and posts photos of his travels on Instagram.
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