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  • 00:00So what is the state of the Chinese movie industry from IMAX perspective? I know you're at the higher end right now and but more percentage of the big blockbusters are going into IMAX and Chinese are seem to be buying them at least through January, through May. What does January through May? How does that translate to projections for the rest of the year? So we're we're having a great year. Obviously, it started out with very strong Chinese New Year. You know, we're seeing hi big tentpole films coming in both from Hollywood as well as the Chinese local language slate. So, you know, I think we're on our way to one of our our best first halves. We've got titles coming in, you know, getting dated almost day and date with with the rest of their global releases. Mission Impossible eight Jurassic World How to Train Your Dragon Further Out Zootopia, too. And then finally, you know, this tiny little movie called Avatar three at the end of the year. So lots coming in on the Hollywood front. Now, wait a minute. I thought the Chinese economy was slowing and the consumers are more discerning. And I thought there was a trade war that was going to be impacting the number of U.S. films coming into China. Yeah. Yeah. You know, businesses is really as usual. It's pretty it's pretty great to see, you know, the process of importation is is really been very smooth. These films are getting dated with regularity. And, you know, there's really nothing very much changed that we've seen over the past few months, and we expect that to continue. So I again, I hear about this trade war, but we haven't exactly felt it directly hit our. Why? Why is that? There was a lot of noise, obviously, with the tariffs and Donald Trump's proclamation about bringing films back to the United States and terrifying foreign films that come into the United States. But is that a whole bunch of nothing? I know, Richard, your boss has talked about it's just a bunch of noise, but it hasn't been impacting it. You know, I got to agree with my boss, right? I it was it started out with a couple of bloggers that basically started some online rumors. And there is about a week of frenzy around it. And then, you know, seven days later, it was very clear that business was back to usual. So I think there's always been a lot of noise and there will always continue to be some noise. But for our little sector, we're pretty protected from a lot of the outside noise. So what's going on with Wanda? Because I believe they operate, I believe about 50% in China of your IMAX screens and they're going to be converting more of them to the higher end. Tell us about that. Yeah, that was an announcement we made earlier this week, something we're really proud of. I think in particular with that announcement, it's not about new sites, but it's really about converting other premium formats. So that I think is just further confirmation of the demand for IMAX in the market, you know, replacing other premium formats with IMAX. Obviously there's a lot that goes into considering that. And certainly on Wanda's ROIC and looking at the financials of what IMAX means to them and the brand and what consumers are really looking for right now. You know, we saw an I think it was Lighthouse Research did a survey and, you know, 82% of the Chinese population now prefers large premium formats. Obviously, IMAX is leading that. But this strong preference for premium is is not going away. In fact, I think it's only getting stronger, the premium quality. But there's a premium price according to that as well. And also filming I believe in in your most advanced cameras in production equipment is more expensive Beijing in light and others have talked at the Shanghai Film Festival about maybe there's too many films being made right now for mass market. It could be about half of that because costs over the last decade have more than doubled or tenfold, I believe is the term that it was that the figure they use? Yeah, I saw that earlier this week. You know what is the correct number of films to be making any given year I think is anyone's guess. Right. I'm not sure exactly what they were, which types of films they were referring to. For us, I don't really see that being a factor that influences our business. We're in the business of doing the biggest blockbusters, whether they're Chinese language or Hollywood. And for those films, I don't think we're going to see a shortage in sort of investment for that. Our cameras, if anything, I think they add to box office. And that's why so many filmmakers and studios want to be using our cameras. You know, yesterday we announced three new titles on Chinese language titles Donkey Rescue, The Cool Fish Two, and then Writers Odyssey, to which all of which are going to be releasing this summer and before the end of the new year. What did the job? To basically do to the industry because that was really the tentpole for the box office success of late. And there is some concern that after that runs its course that maybe the demand will taper off. You know, for me I think ninja to proved one simple thing. The audience is there. If you make a good movie, the audience is there and they showed up in huge numbers. We year to date a lot of help from the Giants to have seen 22 million in attendance for right that's a very large number and so I think you know it was double the year over year was it was year over year. That's great You got your numbers there. So I think it proves that the the theatergoing audience in China is really strong. It's really about the content supply. But how resilient is it given that mean the economy is is not doing as well as authorities would like and people are holding onto their discretionary money, their household savings? Hmm. Well, I think that going to watch the movie is still a really high ROI for people. You know, you're paying less than $10 to be entertained for 2 to 2 and a half hours in the summertime. It's air conditioned. You know, you've got popcorn, you've got Cokes. I mean, in terms of time and money, I think it's still a really high value proposition. So I think that's one of the reasons why we're still seeing a lot of growth in our market share. Again, year to date, we're doing 5% of the total box office in China. That's the highest we've ever done in any year. And and I think people again, it goes back to wanting that premium experience for what is, I believe, a really reasonable cost. What would be the target then from 5% to what, over the next five years, Of course, from 5 to 100, you're taking that to Richard and saying that's that's our business plan for the next five years. You know? No, I we don't give ourselves sort of a target number. And we we have less than 1% of the total screens in China. It's got about 800 screens in China. So, you know, doing five times that in box office is something we're really proud of. But I'll always I think there's room to grow and we're going to be pushing the limits into double digits.
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Imax China CEO on Tariffs, Ne Zha 2 Impact

June 20th, 2025, 1:03 AM GMT+0000

Imax China is aggressively adding screens across the country, betting on big local and US productions to boost its sales. Partner Wanda Film, China’s largest movie exhibitor, is planning to replace 27 premium format screens with Imax’s larger high-tech jumbo screens. In a wide-ranging conversation, Bloomberg's Stephen Engle discusses the impact of the trade war and Ne Zha 2 with CEO Daniel Manwaring. (Source: Bloomberg)


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