IMAX sees India entering a high-growth phase over the next two to three years, with momentum expected to build through 2025 as the company rolls out a larger slate and expands its national footprint amid rising demand for premium moviegoing. Despite being IMAX’s seventh-largest market worldwide, India remains significantly underpenetrated, a senior company official said.

Giovanni Dolci, Chief Commercial Officer at IMAX Corporation, said the company’s growth in India is being driven by structural improvements and scale. “We have actually increased our footprint by almost 60% since 2020,” he said, adding that IMAX has entered what he described as a “multiplier effect” in the country. “Once you reach a critical scale, things can only get better and better. And we feel we are at that point in India.”

Dolci told ET that IMAX’s year-to-date box office in India has reached 21.9 million dollars, driven by a mix of Hollywood and local-language releases. He said IMAX posted just over 9 million dollars in India box office in the September quarter, making it the company’s second-best quarter ever in the market after Q3 2023, which delivered 9.5 million dollars.

The rest of the year includes several high-visibility titles such as Avatar: Fire And Ash, Wicked: For Good, Zootopia 2, The Running Man and Predator: Badlands.

Audience appetite remains strong. “To the end of October, in local currency, considering only the same-store locations, the IMAX box office in India was up 78%, which is absolutely striking. It tells us there is a really strong appetite out there.”

Dolci said IMAX’s growth is supported by a more varied slate. “India is a country with such a diverse cinematic taste. The content mix has been extraordinary,” he said. The company’s top three titles ever in India are F1: The Movie, Oppenheimer and Avatar: The Way Of Water. “These are very different titles, but audiences acknowledge the added value that the IMAX format and the IMAX canvas can add.”

Anime has also become a dependable contributor. “There is a growing demand for anime and it is a universal trend,” he said, pointing to the performance of Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle, which exceeded internal expectations across several territories.

Local-language content now represents a significant share of the company’s worldwide performance. “A third of our Q3 box office was coming from local-language content,” Dolci said. He expects this trend to strengthen in India. “Local language will continue to grow in significance and will continue to grow its share of our box office.”

IMAX is deepening its collaboration with Indian filmmakers. Dolci highlighted the upcoming S S Rajamouli film Varanasi, which will be shot with IMAX-certified cameras. “We want to craft relationships with the world’s best filmmakers to make sure that we can give them the tools and the canvas to put their vision on screen.”

Even as India rises within IMAX’s global rankings, Dolci sees substantial headroom. “There is room for at least 150 IMAX theatres in India. We have 34,” he said.

The company has nine contracted theatres awaiting installation, with a sizable portion expected to go live in 2026. While PVR INOX is the primary partner, IMAX has expanded into circuits such as Broadway Cinemas, Miraj Cinemas and Rajhans Cinemas.

Dolci said demand is increasingly visible in non-metro markets. “There are places where audiences are having to travel, sometimes even for hours, to get to the next available IMAX theatre,” he said. This is shaping the next phase of expansion.

Indian exhibitors have scaled up their own premium offerings, but Dolci said IMAX’s differentiation stems from the way content is created for the format. “You can put a powerful projector and a great seat and a great sound system in a theatre, and there is nothing wrong with that. But in IMAX, it is a completely different experience altogether because of the work that we do with the content.”

He added, “IMAX is a different version of the movie and it is something that none of the other formats can have or can show.”

Dolci said he does not forecast specific numbers but believes the next phase will be driven by a stronger slate, deeper filmmaker relationships and broader geographic distribution. “The opportunity for growth is extraordinary.”

Canada-headquartered IMAX Corporation achieved its highest box-office earnings in India in 2023, generating $23.1 million from both Hollywood and Indian films amid increase in admissions and ticket pricing, said a senior executive.

Globally, IMAX achieved its second-highest earnings in a year in 2023, with $1.06 billion in box-office collections.

“2023 was our best year at the Indian box office, with collections up 68% compared to 2019,” Giovanni Dolci, global chief sales officer, IMAX Corporation, told ET.

He said the 2023 box-office collections should be compared with the 2019 numbers since 2020, 2021 and 2022 were abnormal years for the exhibition industry owing to the Covid-19 pandemic-related disruptions.

IMAX’s box-office collections for Indian titles amounted to $6.46 million out of a total of $23.1 million, he said, adding that the company helped Indian films collect $15.74 million in global box-office receipts.

In 2023, Oppenheimer, Avatar: The Way Of Water, Jawan, Pathaan and Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning - Part One were the top five grossing films for IMAX in India, with collections of $6.1 million, $1.8 million, $1.6 million, $1.5 million and $1.2 million respectively.

Oppenheimer and Avatar: The Way Of Water became the highest-grossing films in India so far for IMAX. Among the Indian films, KGF - Chapter 2 continues to be the top grosser, with collections of $1.7 million, followed by Jawan ($1.6 million) and Pathaan ($1.5 million) respectively.

IMAX sees huge potential in India, the company's eighth-largest growth market in terms of box-office receipts. “We intend to continue on this growth path, and we see 2024 as another key year to enable this growth,” said Dolci.

In 2023, IMAX expanded its network by launching six screens and is awaiting licence approvals to install an additional nine screens. “We increased our network by over 42% in just one year and that shows the appetite that the company has for India,” he said.

IMAX has set a target of launching 100 screens in India by 2025, up from 27 at present, and plans to expand IMAX screens in emerging cities, provided the locations are suitable.

Dolci said IMAX is not just strengthening alliances with major cinema chains such as PVR Inox and Cinepolis but is also in discussions with other exhibitors interested in investing in IMAX technology.

The company also plans to increase content throughput by collaborating with local producers, filmmakers and distributors to release more Indian titles on the IMAX platform, he said.

“We released eight Indian films across languages last year; our objective is to release more than eight in 2024,” Dolci said.

The company's slate includes 30 international and Indian films in 2024. IMAX has two Indian films scheduled for release in January, including the Hrithik Roshan film Fighter, which will be released on January 25, and the Tamil action-adventure Captain Miller, which was released on January 12.