FROM OPPENHEIMER TO DUNE: PART TWO, IMAX CONTINUES TO DRAW MOVIEGOERS TO ITS SCREENS, NOTCHING UP SUPERSIZED TICKET SALES. AS INCREASING NUMBERS OF FILMMAKERS LINE UP FOR ‘THE IMAX EXPERIENCE’ IN 2024 AND 2025, TOTAL FILM ASKS: IS IMAX THE FUTURE OF EVENT CINEMA AS WE KNOW IT?
From Los Alamos to Arrakis, a rumbling in the sands of cinema has been heard lately. Denis Villeneuve channelled the vibrations in Dune: Part Two. Long after a young Chris Nolan thrilled to documentaries at the Museum of Science and Industry’s giant dome theatre in Chicago, he conveyed the message with Oppenheimer. If you want to see these films how their makers intended, both preached, get thee to an IMAX.
Post-COVID-19, cinema’s embattled state seems to make that gospel a tough sell. Streaming, the cost-of-living crisis, variations on ‘superhero fatigue’ (discuss) and post-strike delays have hit theatres and viewers hard. Yet as audiences embrace the piercing clarity, giddy scale and enveloping sound of IMAX – either digital or the revered large-frame 15/70 film format – IMAX’s success remains remarkable.
In one sense, this can be attributed to timing. ‘I think what we’ve seen since the pandemic is a reason to make a cinematic trip an event, certainly in the mainstream,’ says Madeleine Mullett, programme manager at London’s gorgeous BFI IMAX. ‘We still have a lot of brilliant world cinema in the UK on arthouse and independent screens. But the “eventising” of films is something we saw large-scale with Barbenheimer and thank goodness, because it was a wonderful way to bring people back to the cinema… Making that trip special is something the IMAX experience encompasses.’
In 2023, proof resonated as IMAX banked its second-highest year of ticket sales ever with $1.06bn, just below 2019’s $1.1bn. Oppenheimer netted $190m from IMAX screens – that’s 20% of the film’s global takings on 1% of the screens. In producer Emma Thomas’ Oscar acceptance speech, she thanked IMAX CEO Richard Gelfond, helping anoint IMAX’s status. And Dune: Part Two stands at $145.2m in IMAX sales as we go to press, number seven in the highest-grossing IMAX films to date.
As Gelfond, speaking to Total Film, notes of Dune: Part Two’s run, ‘It blows me away that one in every five tickets on the planet is at an IMAX theatre. That’s a remarkable vote of confidence.’ And to understand what that vote is for, it’s crucial to note what IMAX is not.
TECH NOTE
Neither a distributor nor exhibitor, IMAX is a technology company that licenses its brand, hardware and software to global exhibitors. Filmmakers can access its equipment, including eight notoriously noisy IMAX cameras and various IMAX-certified lenses, used to modify digital cameras. For Gelfond, IMAX’s recent success pivots in part on an alliance of that technological development with
