As moviegoers make their long-awaited return to cinemas, premium large-format (PLF) auditoriums have emerged as a preferred destination. The trend began to emerge as early as last summer, when Chinese cinemas first reopened following the closures that presaged the pandemic’s global disruption. The August release of The Eight Hundred, the first Chinese film to be shot in Imax, brought blockbuster earnings from Imax screenings despite the format being available in just 1 percent of the country’s screens. Imax continued to see similarly strong performances from its locations as more cinemas opened around the globe.
The box office hot streak carried over during the lull in new releases experienced by much of the market during the first half of 2021. A rerelease of James Cameron’s Avatar in China, for instance, brought in nearly a third of its opening weekend haul from Imax screens. Domestically, Imax began to hit similar benchmarks as audiences returned. By July, Imax claimed nearly 10 percent of the $80 million domestic opening weekend from Disney’s Black Widow—at the time, the biggest pandemic-era debut in North America.
Source: How Premium Large Format Auditoriums Are Helping Welcome Audiences Back to the Movies – Boxoffice