With more foreign investment, India can build movie industry quicker: IMAX

He spoke on IMAX's place in the global cinema ecosystem and its India plans

This interview has been updated to include a clarification by IMAX
After struggling for years to be accepted by filmmakers and theatres, IMAX has now become one of the hottest technology brands. Vanita Kohli-Khandekar spoke to its New York-based CEO Richard Gelfond in a video interview on IMAX’s place in the global cinema ecosystem and its India plans. Edited excerpts:

What is the role IMAX plays in the global cinema ecosystem?

One, we create events out of content which could include movies, concerts or sporting events. We just did the Olympics opening ceremony live. Second, we are a curator of global content. We work with the best film makers all over the world, the best studios.

Can you take us through what happens, say if I am a studio releasing Avatar 3?

A filmmaker could make a film either with a regular digital camera or an IMAX camera. Then we would work with a studio in distributing it globally. We design the theatre with a certain aspect ratio, so that it’s much more vertical than a traditional letter box making for a very immersive experience. We manufacture the projector, which is almost exclusively laser.

When we put it in, we wire it to a global system where we monitor every theatre (IMAX is on 1,800 screens globally) in real time 24/7. Every morning, we reset the sound, make sure the bulbs, circuit boards are working. If something is broken, we call our maintenance team to fix it. We get an upfront payment from the exhibitor. And we get 18 per cent of the global box-office as a technology royalty.

Hollywood content makes up the vast majority of our revenues ($375 million in FY2023). Local language content (in India, China) is 21 per cent and alternative content is going to make up an increasing percentage.

IMAX has become important to storytelling because spectacle is pulling audiences. Is this a passing post-pandemic, post-streaming phase?

It is a continuing trend. Streaming was a new thing. But people are social animals. After the pandemic they are seeking something special when they leave their home not just for movies but also music concerts and sports. And they are willing to pay more for it. The year 2019 was our highest revenue year.

In 2023, at a constant currency basis, we equalled 2019 even though conventional cinema was down by more than 20 per cent. The second reason it (IMAX's rising importance and growth) is a continuing trend is because few of the films that were filmed with IMAX cameras broke out of the pack.

On Oppenheimer and Dune, we did about 20 per cent of the world’s box-office at less than one per cent of the screens in the world. In 2025, we will have 14 films (being shot on IMAX), including big ones like Formula One, Mission Impossible, Avatar 3. We have proven that it’s just a better experience and that is not going to slip back. If anything, the trend is going to accelerate.

You remain bullish on China. But what are your plans for the Indian market?

What has made me much more optimistic is that we’re doing more Indian local language films. Just this weekend (September 7-9) we made close to a million dollars on a Tamil film (The GOAT) in 30 theatres.

That’s good. The films are getting bigger, more expensive, ambitious and more IMAX. Our strategy is to lean into more local language films. China has 800 (IMAX) theatres and India has 30 theatres. It (India) has always been a market I eye with great optimism. But it has been more difficult to execute on the ground. There are a lot of reasons. The cost of real estate, the pace of mall building has been slower in India than in other places.

India is the world’s largest film producing country with a robust creative ecosystem. But monetisation remains poor. What are your suggestions?

There is not one Indian movie industry. There’s Bollywood, South India…lots of nuance. One thing then is to try and find a film that appeals across.

Also, less regulation, less red tape to open cinemas, to mall development in general and maybe more openness to foreign investment. Most of the cinemas are local owned.

Some foreign chains such as Cinepolis have come in. But if you could attract more foreign investment, you could probably build the industry quicker. The bureaucracy, issues in the court system and the trouble enforcing contracts makes me a little pessimistic.

We did a deal with (Subhash Chandra’s) E-City (in 2000). They never paid us and we won an arbitration. To collect an arbitration has taken us more than 17 years. We have been to the Supreme Court twice. When you’ve that kind of experience, you’re reluctant to put a lot of money in. Since you asked for suggestions – it just needs to get easier to do business.

IMAX has clarified that it has 14 Filmed For IMAX titles next year, but Avatar 3 is not one of them (it will release at the end of 2025, but not as a Filmed For IMAX title). The titles Mr Gelfond mentioned were Filmed for IMAX, not all shot on IMAX.