IMAX breaks records: “For The Odyssey, we developed a new generation of cameras”

Giovanni Dolci, commercial director of IMAX, details the company’s figures for the past year and the one to come, and the “strategic axis” represented by directors like Christopher Nolan.

First: 2025 has obviously been a very successful year for IMAX. Internationally as in France?
Giovanni Dolci: Looking at international figures, 2025 was our best ever year at the box office, with $1.28 billion in global revenue. This is by far our record. Many continue to use 2019 – therefore before the pandemic – as a reference, and it is therefore relevant to point out that we did 13% better than that year. When people tell me that cinema is dead, I answer that it’s not true: people just don’t want to see bad films in bad theaters. The appetite for great experiences is still there. As long as we offer good content in exciting places, the audience responds.

Furthermore, we were 40% above 2024 in terms of revenue. We broke our record in China, North America, and the rest of the world when you count together all the countries that are not China and North America. This proves that this is not an isolated phenomenon. In the past, growth came from these two dominant territories but today it is much more balanced.

And France, then?
It was a good year for IMAX at home, even if the French cinema industry overall declined by around 15% in the number of admissions. This is not a happy statistic. But paradoxically, our IMAX box office in France has increased compared to 2024. This shows that the problem is not a lack of interest in cinema, but higher expectations. So we’re seeing that people are looking for the IMAX experience more than ever, and I think that’s good news for the entire industry because it shows that audiences are willing to spend a little bit more to watch quality content on a quality screen. We are therefore satisfied with French performances. Last year, France was our eighth best market in terms of global box office revenue. And Avatar: Fire and Ash was a huge success at home: France was the third IMAX market in the world for this film.

Which raises a fundamental question: are IMAX spectators moviegoers who consume a lot of cinema in theaters, or rather occasional spectators who seek to live an “experience”, as you said?
It’s a mixture. We have a core group of passionate IMAX moviegoers, but by expanding our programming, we attract new audiences. In France, we even broadcast a football match, PSG-OM, in a few theaters. These are people who wouldn’t normally have come to see an IMAX film, but who are discovering the experience differently. This is obviously beneficial for us but also for the entire industry.

Will this success accelerate the opening of new IMAX theaters in our region?
There is a multiplier effect. The more theaters and content there are, the more relevant we become for exhibitors, distributors and the public. We push growth, of course, but our partners also invest because they see the results. Last year, we opened seven new rooms in France – a record. This year we are expecting at least five more. First in major cities – obvious locations – then in secondary areas.

What is your strategy to convince the public to choose IMAX rather than another premium technology, like ICE or Dolby Vision?
I’m not going to comment on other technologies, but our proposition is unique: offering a different version of the film, faithful to the director’s vision, in the best possible theater, with an experience impossible to reproduce at home. We collaborate with the greatest filmmakers from pre-production and our cameras are part of the creative process. The public is becoming more demanding: they want to know if the IMAX version was thought out from the start, not added after the fact. We integrate IMAX into film marketing and strongly control the quality of theaters. In France, our partners – notably Pathé – also offer very high-level rooms.

Interesting subject of the involvement of directors. The Odyssey will be the first fiction film shot entirely in IMAX 70 mm. Does this mean that in the near future, this technology will become more widely available and that filmmakers with smaller budgets will be able to take advantage of it?
Directors are a strategic axis for us. Christopher Nolan is of course a major supporter of the format and for The Odysseywe have developed a new generation of 70mm cameras to meet their needs. We are also developing IMAX certified digital cameras, which opens the door to more modest productions. At home, the documentary Athos – At the heart of the French patrol is a good example. Ten years ago, it would have been impossible to shoot it in IMAX. Our constraint is above all the available screen time: we have a limited capacity each year. So we have to select the films carefully.

With all the IMAX films announced for 2026, are you expecting an even better year than 2025?
Yes. We told our investors a forecast of $1.5 billion in revenue for 2026. That’s huge. Also because the offer will be exceptional: The Odyssey, Dune: Part 3, Avengers: Doomsday, Project Hail Mary, Mandalorian & Grogu… We are also developing local cinema a lot, because the pandemic has taught us the importance of national productions. Movies like Demon Slayer: The Infinite Fortress have proven that local successes can become global. Five years ago, I would never have told you that such a film would work so well outside of Japan! And regarding France, we are broadcasting the new film soon Marsupilami in IMAX. As it turns out, the demand is very varied.

I’m going to ask you to play Nostradamus, but how do you see the future of cinema in ten years? Some believe that the room will become a pure experience, like the theater, and therefore limited to large rooms; others still want to believe in cinema as a place accessible to all…
I would really like to know what cinema will look like in ten years, especially in an industry that is constantly changing! However, I can tell you that it seems undeniable to me that the public aspires to experiences of increasingly greater quality. We’re seeing the bar set higher and higher, and we’re seeing it’s harder than ever to convince people to leave their homes. And you know what? It’s an interesting challenge to take on, because it’s not just about IMAX. It will not just be a question of screen size, but rather of the overall cinematic experience which must be of a very high level. Unfortunately – and I’m not thinking specifically of France – there are many territories where the quality of theaters, in general, has deteriorated over the years.

It’s a good thing to have to adapt and change, because in the end it’s the spectators who will benefit. I remember when I joined IMAX 13 years ago, it was difficult to convince some theater operators to offer something special and different for audiences. I had to convince some that people would get tired of sitting on broken seats, in a small room, with smelly carpet. But the answer was: “ Well, for now it’s working. So why change or invest? » Until the day it no longer works… And I come back to the diversity of films and the content projected: some thought that the future would be limited to these large cinemas which would only show action blockbusters or superhero films. We have, I believe, proven the opposite. According to the data I have, diversity has never been greater. What I see is a change in the place itself and an expansion of the offering.

There remains the question of price and accessibility. A session in IMAX is not cheap…
We do not set prices, it is the operators who do. But – it’s funny – a lot of people think that IMAX runs the cinemas, and therefore write to us at our contact email address. “ Why was the seat wet? Why did you take away my favorite snack? » (Laughter.) We answer these questions as much as possible, but viewers rarely, if ever, complain about the price. Which leads me to believe that they recognize the value of our service and are willing to pay more as long as the experience is up to par. That said, there are of course limits, and our partners seem to me to be very careful in the way they set the price of their offers.