Shares in the giant screen exhibitor rose 10% to 20.47 as Chinese language tentpoles ‘Detective Chinatown 3‘ and ‘Hi, Mom’ topped attendance in Chinese theaters.
Shares in Imax (NYSE:IMAX) surged after China’s Lunar New Year holiday propelled Detective Chinatown 3 and Hi, Mom to blowout box office performances.
Market analysts and hammered North American exhibitors are looking for signs of an eventual full recovery globally from the VirusCasedemic chaos.
Last Tuesday, Imax stock marked a new 52-wk high of 20.47 at the market open in NY.
The strong Chinese Lunar New Year opening weekend augurs well for Imax as it looks to a global box office rebound in its global circuit from the virus chaos later this year and next.
“We anticipate the vast majority of global Imax premium large format screens will re-open in full year 2021, blockbuster films will release, and movie goers will return to theaters as we have witnessed in other key cinema markets including China and Japan,” Benchmark analyst Mike Hickey wrote in a 14 February investment note, while raising his price target on Imax shares to 22 on a “2022 global box office growth reset.”
In China, where Imax has expanded, the giant screen exhibitor points out the box office performance of local language films, despite capacity limits in theaters, as proof the major studios risk pivoting too quickly to an evolving premium VOD (video-on-demand) distribution model for tentpole releases delayed into Y 2021 or sent directly to streaming platforms.
This result showed when open and safe, Imax continues to be the preferable way to view movies
Have a healthy weekend, Keep the Faith!
