IMAX shares closed above $50 for the first time in the company's history on Monday, extending a rally that has pushed the stock up more than 30% since Christopher Nolan's "The Odyssey" opened in U.S. theaters on July 17. The stock touched an intraday all-time high of $50.72 before settling near $50, a gain of roughly 5% on the day, and it kept climbing into Tuesday, trading close to $51 by midday.
The catalyst is impossible to miss. IMAX Corporation, the large-format cinema technology company that traces its roots back more than 50 years, reported that July was the highest-grossing month in its history, pulling in $257 million in global box office revenue. That figure beat the company's previous single-month record by 47%. Of that total, $221 million came from a single film: "The Odyssey," Nolan's big-budget adaptation of Homer's epic, starring Matt Damon as Odysseus.
The numbers behind that haul are the kind IMAX doesn't usually get to report. "The Odyssey" became the fastest film ever to cross $200 million in global IMAX box office receipts, and it delivered the company's first-ever streak of three consecutive weekends with more than $50 million in global ticket sales. To date, IMAX screens have accounted for more than 24% of the film's entire worldwide box office take, a disproportionately large share for a format that represents a small fraction of total theater screens worldwide. In 24 international markets, "The Odyssey" is now the highest-grossing IMAX release ever shown.
Some of that outperformance traces back to how the film was made. Nolan shot "The Odyssey" entirely on IMAX film cameras, using a next-generation camera nicknamed "The Keighley," which he and longtime cinematographer Hoyte van Hoytema developed with IMAX's engineering team, along with a new sound blimp built to work across multiple IMAX cameras. The result is a film designed from the ground up to be seen the way IMAX sells its most premium experience: on 70mm film, projected in theaters equipped to run it.
That premium format is also the tightest supply constraint in the entire story. Only 41 locations worldwide can screen a film in 70mm, and just 25 of those are in the United States, because most modern movies are shot and projected digitally rather than on physical reels. IMAX has already extended "The Odyssey's" run in those theaters through mid-September, and many of the remaining 70mm showings are already sold out globally. Tickets for some of those screenings have reportedly resold on secondary markets for thousands of dollars.
IMAX CEO Rich Gelfond made no effort to downplay his enthusiasm for the director behind it all. Speaking on CNBC's "Squawk on the Street" Monday, Gelfond noted that "The Odyssey" is now the eighth film IMAX has made with Nolan, dating back through "Oppenheimer," "Tenet," "Dunkirk" and earlier collaborations. Gelfond said the film is tracking at nearly double what "Oppenheimer" earned for IMAX back in 2023 — a startling comparison, given that "Oppenheimer" itself became a case study in how a serious, three-hour historical drama could dominate a summer box office on the strength of premium-format ticket sales. Of Nolan, Gelfond said simply, "The guy's a genius. How do you thank a genius? You work with him again."
The film's third weekend, which closed out July and pushed it past the $200 million IMAX threshold, illustrated how disproportionately "The Odyssey" performs on IMAX screens relative to the format's overall footprint. Domestically, the film generated $22.1 million across 443 IMAX locations that weekend, representing 43% of its entire domestic box office despite IMAX making up a small fraction of the total screens the film played on nationwide. Internationally, IMAX contributed $22.6 million across 450 locations, or 26% of the international weekend total. Those ratios are well above the format's typical single-digit share of a wide release's overall box office, and they explain why IMAX's own July numbers moved as sharply as they did even though "The Odyssey" was only in theaters for two of the month's four weeks.
Gelfond has also pushed back on the idea that IMAX's fortunes are riding on a single film. He described the company's broader strategy as a "flywheel," pointing to a steady cadence of new theater openings and installations, growing recurring cash flow, and a higher cash conversion rate as the structural engine underneath any one movie's box office run. IMAX has continued signing international partnerships in recent weeks, including new laser-projection locations opened with exhibitor CGV in Vietnam.
"The Odyssey" isn't IMAX's only tailwind this month. Sony's "Spider-Man: Brand New Day," starring Tom Holland and Zendaya, opened the following weekend and broke the North American opening-weekend record for a Marvel film, pulling in more than $360 million domestically and helping push total U.S. theater revenue for the weekend to roughly $425 million. IMAX announced it is expanding the film's footprint across North American IMAX screens starting August 6. Industry analysts now expect "Spider-Man: Brand New Day" to finish as the highest-grossing film of 2026, potentially overtaking "Toy Story 5," which has grossed just over $1 billion globally to date.
The combined strength of both releases has eased a concern that had been building on Wall Street heading into the summer: IMAX's full-year guidance had looked shakier after Netflix delayed the theatrical release of its adaptation of "Narnia: The Magician's Nephew," removing an expected contributor from the back half of the year. July's record month and August's early returns appear to have closed that gap, at least for now.
The stock's climb didn't start with "The Odyssey's" opening weekend, either. IMAX reported second-quarter results on July 23, days before the film's July 17 debut had fully registered in its numbers, with revenue up 12% year-over-year to $103 million and adjusted earnings per share up 65%. On that call, IMAX executives described the film's $52 million worldwide opening as the company's biggest global debut ever on a like-for-like basis, and cited a domestic theater occupancy rate of 75% — an unusually high figure for the format. The film's second weekend added $48 million in IMAX box office, a far smaller drop-off than typical second-weekend declines for major releases, and one that closely tracked the broader box office figures Nolan's film has posted since release.
Even "The Odyssey's" second-weekend performance stood out by the standards of modern blockbusters. Ticket sales fell just 27% in its second weekend, a far smaller drop-off than the 50% or more decline that typically follows a big opening. After two weekends in release, the film had grossed $289 million domestically and $652 million worldwide. It has also not yet opened in China, Japan or South Korea, three of the largest box office markets in the world, leaving room for the total to climb further in the months ahead.
The film's reach has extended beyond the multiplex in ways that have surprised even IMAX's own executives. Gelfond recounted hearing that the tourist bureau in Montpellier, France, had tracked a 30% increase in metro ridership since "The Odyssey" opened there, as audiences traveled from surrounding areas to see it on the biggest screen available. Similar reports of moviegoers flying between cities and countries specifically to catch a 70mm screening have circulated since the film's release.
Asked directly whether IMAX itself might become an acquisition target given its current momentum, Gelfond didn't rule it out. "The company's doing great, it's never been better," he said. "If people approach us, you know, we'll listen."
Looking ahead, IMAX has a slate of high-profile releases lined up that could extend the current run well into next year, including Tom Cruise's "Digger," David Fincher's "The Adventures of Cliff Booth," and Denis Villeneuve's "Dune: Part Three." For a company that spent much of its history as a niche format for documentaries and museum screenings before becoming Hollywood's premium venue of choice, this summer marks the clearest validation yet of that transformation — and Nolan, eight films and one all-time-high stock price later, remains its most reliable box office partner.
