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‘Avengers: Infinity War’ and ‘Black Panther’ Break IMAX Record in 2018

IMAX has broken another of its own records to close out 2018. According to Deadline, in the company’s 50 years in existence, it crossed $1 billion at the box office for the first time. This record was driven by big Hollywood blockbusters and local-language flicks.

The films that made the record possible were Disney and Marvel’s Avengers: Infinity War and Black Panther. They took up the number 1 and 2 spots. DC’s Aquaman is currently in the number 6 spot and is expected to climb to the fourth. The local language flicks are from China. They are Operation Red Sea, Detective Chinatown 2 and Dying To Survive.

Six of the top films were IMAX DNA, which means they were shot specifically with IMAX cameras, or featured an aspect ratio to give audiences 26% more picture space for the IMAX theaters. The films we can expect to do the same in 2019 are Alita: Battle Angel, and Disney’s Captain Marvel, Avengers: Endgame and The Lion King.

IMAX is seeing great opportunity with the local-language films as well, so they’re going to be focusing there as well, and will likely begin to use IMAX DNA in China.

Rich Gelfond, IMAX Corporation CEO, commented on the 2018 performance, saying it

“indicates that blockbuster content experienced in the best premium environment is bigger than ever before. Our global platform in 80 countries eventicizing worldwide movies continues to resonate with audiences. As studios and streaming companies keep focusing their slates on more blockbuster films, particularly in 2019, we see a strong opportunity to continue as a destination of choice for consumers.”

As of September 30, 2018, 1,443 IMAX theater systems were in existence in 79 countries. (1,346 commercial multiplexes, 13 commercial destinations, 84 institutional).

Check out the Top IMAX Films of 2018:

TOP 10 IMAX FILMS OF 2018
Avengers: Infinity War: $143.58M
Black Panther: $81.11M
Jurassic World: $66.75M
Mission: Impossible – Fallout: $53.6M
Ready Player One: $52.12M
Aquaman: Currently $43M, projected to reach $63M by Dec 31
Venom: $42.84M
Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald: $40.02M
Ant-Man and the Wasp: $32.1M
The Meg: $29.91M

And the Top Local-Language Films of 2018:

TOP 10 LOCAL-LANGUAGE IMAX FILMS OF 2018 
Operation Red Sea (China): $22.71M
Detective Chinatown 2 (China): $11.55M
Dying to Survive (China): $9.47M
Monster Hunt 2 (China): $6.96M
Hello Mr Billionaire (China): $5.62M
Project Gutenberg (China): $5.09M
Shadow (China): $4.01M
Detective Dee 3 (China): $3.64M
Along with the Gods (Korea): $2.96M
Padmaavat (India): $2.68M

Do you enjoy seeing films in IMAX? Which was your favorite this year?