Defy the Gods

I mentioned “Marty Supreme” this week because it was probably my favorite (new) movie of the past 12 months.

I won’t be upset if the awards frontrunner “One Battle After Another” wins Best Picture at the Oscars because Paul Thomas Anderson (PTA) is one of my favorite writer/directors.

But the best moviegoing experience I’ve had in the past 12 months was seeing “The Shining (1980)” in IMAX (**$IMAX**) last month.

It’s not the first time I’ve seen the movie (I love Stanley Kubrick!), and I wasn’t even in the best/biggest IMAX theater in New York City.

But the movie looked, sounded, and felt better than I’ve ever seen it before.

This opinion is clearly unoriginal, because, of course, it should be that way…

IMAX’s slogan is “Extraordinary Awaits.” Or maybe it’s “Cinema at its finest.”

Either way, the audience for “The Shining” was packed on a Tuesday afternoon, and everyone across the city and country seemed to love it.

The tickets were expensive, but that didn’t dissuade the moviegoers, even “IN THIS ECONOMY?!!”

From *SlashFilm* yesterday:

At a time when nothing seems certain at the box office, one thing cannot be argued: IMAX is more important than it’s ever been. The company, which offers a large-screen, premium experience to moviegoers, has been around for decades but has become an increasingly crucial piece of the puzzle for big movies in recent years. To that end, IMAX just had its biggest year ever — and it’s only expected to get bigger in 2026 and beyond.

In a press release, IMAX revealed that it took in a record $1.28 billion globally at the box office in 2025. $449 million of that came from domestic ticket sales, up 14% from the previous record set in 2023. For context, the domestic box office failed to cross the $9 billion mark in 2025, totaling $8.87 billion. That means IMAX accounted for 5% of overall ticket sales, despite having just 1% of the total screen count globally. Rich Gelfond, CEO of IMAX, had this to say in a statement:

“2025 was truly a transformational year for IMAX in which we leveled up our performance across our business — capturing a greater share of total box office with a wider variety of releases across an expanding global footprint. We see no signs of slowing down given a very promising slate ahead and the consistency of our market share gains, as filmmakers, studios, and audiences worldwide continue to gravitate toward the IMAX Experience.”

It took me a while to remember that I watched “The Fantastic Four: First Steps” and “Superman” last year, too, neither in IMAX.

My streak of caring to go to every superhero film has been over for a while.

Growing up in NYC, it was always special, as a teenager, to find a reason to pay extra to sit in the AMC (**$AMC*) Lincoln Square theater, with its roughly* 75-foot-tall, 100-foot-wide screen.

In my 20s, I spent a year at one job, where, for almost one hour every workday, I had to watch every… single… new movie trailer.

It sounds like fun, but most movies are bad, which means the trailers were worse, sometimes even for decent films. Or, a good trailer gives away the entire plot. You know this.

Afterward, I stopped watching trailers altogether, and kill time before showtime with noise-cancelling headphones because I want to go in fresh like Frank Costanza:

GEORGE: Did anybody see “Firestorm”?

MR. ROSS: “Firestorm,” that’s a hell of a picture.

GEORGE: Yeah.

MR. ROSS: Remember when they had the helicopter land on top of that car –

FRANK: Hey! Hey! Come on! Come on! I haven’t seen it yet.

MR. ROSS: It doesn’t have anything to do with the plot!

FRANK: Still! Still! I like to go in fresh!

Okay, back to IMAX, internationally…

From *The Hollywood Reporter* yesterday:

Getting IMAX nearer to its 2025 global box office goals was the Chinese title “Ne Zha 2,” which earned $166.7 million in ticket sales on IMAX screens; “Avatar: Fire and Ash,” which has earned $140 million on IMAX screens through Jan. 4 and will continue to play across the company’s global network through the rest of the month; while “F1: The Movie” brought in $97.6 million in ticket sales.

…

The China box office for IMAX came to $407 million last year, up 5 percent over the previous record set in 2019, and the film technologies company had its best local language box office take at $405 million worldwide, up 65 percent from the previous record in 2023.

IMAX also had its biggest global market share ever with 3.8 percent of the worldwide box office from just over 1,800 locations in its global network. Last year, IMAX released 122 new titles worldwide, and its biggest local language slate with 67 international films released from 14 countries worldwide.

The only reason I know “Ne Zha 2 (2025)” exists is that it was mentioned on The Town podcast.

And so I didn’t know “Ne Zha (2019)” existed.

From Wikipedia:

Ne Zha 2 broke numerous box office records inside and outside China, including becoming the highest-grossing film in a single box office territory, the highest-grossing animated film, being the first adult animated film in this position, the highest-grossing non-English language film, and the first animated film in history to cross the $2 billion mark, as well as being the highest-selling animated film based on ticket sales, overtaking “The Lion King (2019).” It also became the highest-grossing film of 2025 and the fifth-highest-grossing film of all time.

I should have bought IMAX shares when The Town host Matthew Belloni had IMAX CEO Rich Gelfond on his podcast back in late July.

The share price is up over 30% since then, despite a recent dip in 2026.

IMAX’s shares have outperformed the S&P 500 over the past five years, but only by 85% to 81%.

By comparison, Netflix (**$NFLX)** has risen only 77% over the same multi-year period.

From IMAX’s press release yesterday:

Highlights of the 2026 slate include:

Jon Favreau’s “Star Wars: The Mandalorian and Grogu,” a Filmed for IMAX release.

Christopher Nolan’s “The Odyssey,” the first theatrical feature ever shot entirely with IMAX film cameras.

Greta Gerwig’s “Narnia,” which will receive a groundbreaking IMAX-exclusive theatrical run next Thanksgiving ahead of its Christmas release on Netflix.

Denis Villeneuve’s “Dune: Part Three,” which was also shot with IMAX film cameras.

A strong lineup of films across genres and geographies, including the Chinese New Year slate, Japanese anime and live action releases, and highly anticipated Hollywood films including “Project: Hail Mary,” “The Super Mario Galaxy Movie,” “Michael,” and “Toy Story 5” among others.

It was no surprise that, back in July, IMAX tickets for “The Odyssey” at Lincoln Center sold out online within minutes.

How much will that movie (or another IMAX title) gross, and will IMAX be a big beneficiary? I don’t know.

But consider my credit card intrigued if “The Legend of Zelda” is released in IMAX… in 2027.