IMAX CEO: Family Movies Soar to Success at the Box Office
The pre-summer cinematic wars are taking place at a theatre near you. From the battle between two of the world's greatest superheroes in ‘Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice’ to the latest blockbuster from Disney’s (NYSE:DIS) Marvel, ‘Captain America: Civil War,’ movie goers are flooding IMAX (NYSE:IMAX) theatres for the ultimate experience.
Marvel Cinematic Universe’s ‘Captain America: Civil War’ brought in a massive $25 million from last night’s preview and pulled in a significant $30.6 million opening day in China, making it the fourth largest opening day in China for an American movie.
In an exclusive interview with the FOX Business Network’s Countdown to the Closing Bell with Liz Claman, IMAX CEO Rich Gelfond discussed the guessing game surrounding the box office movie opening projections.
“I look at what Age of Ultron did, the last Avengers movie, and I look in that ball park somewhere all around. As you know, even though it’s called Captain America, it really is an Avengers-like movie it got tons of characters, friends fighting friends, friends fighting enemies,” Gelfond said.
He thinks word of mouth and great review from Rotten Tomatoes will be the driving force behind the movie’s box office success.
Despite all the interest generated from super hero block buster films, family movies have been trending in popularity both domestically and internationally.
“When we decided to do ‘Zootopia’, we decided to do ‘Jungle Book’, it was a little bit of a gamble for us,” Gelfond said. “Our sweet spot tends to be more like civil wars, more fanboy audience.”
Gelfond says this may be the first year four movies reached $300 million dollars in the box office before the summer and two out of four were family movies.
As the box office continues to shift internationally, countries like China created a quota system restricting foreign movie imports to a specific number of titles.
“This is kind of a pressure to find family films that will pass through the censors in China and also appeal to audiences irrespective of culture,” Gelfond said.