French exhibition company Megarama and IMAX Corporation (NYSE: IMAX) today announced an agreement for three new IMAX® systems in France and Morocco. The new deal will more than triple IMAX’s footprint with Megarama and bring the number of IMAX® systems in France to 29, including 23 currently open and another 6 set for installation. Two of the new IMAX with Laser locations will be in France – in Givors and Boulogne-Sur-Mer – and one in Rabat, the capital city of Morocco.
Megarama is among IMAX’s newest international exhibition partners, with the Paris-based firm opening its first IMAX location in Bordeaux in December 2022. With this new deal, Megarama becomes IMAX’s second biggest commercial client in France.
“We are delighted to join forces with IMAX to bring our audiences an even more immersive and captivating cinematic experience” said Mr. Jean-Pierre Lemoine, founder and President of Megarama. “This strategic partnership reflects our unwavering dedication to offering our movie-goers the highest quality entertainment and pushing the boundaries of innovation in cinema industry”.
“IMAX continues to grow and diversify its global footprint, and this new agreement with our excellent partners at Megarama expands our presence in two key countries — including France, one of the world’s red hot box office markets,” said Rich Gelfond, CEO of IMAX. “Megarama’s embrace of IMAX is a clear example of how our results with ‘Avatar: The Way of Water’ are driving our sales business, and our overall strength at the box office in France is reigniting the market for network growth.”
The new agreement comes as IMAX rides a wave of momentum in France, which is a top ten market overall for global box office for the Company. IMAX just had its best first quarter ever at the box office in France with $9.3 million (Q1 2023), coming close to its record for the highest grossing quarter of all time with $9.5 million, which was set in Q4 2022. Both France and Morocco are also one of 48 countries worldwide where “Avatar: The Way of Water” stands as the highest grossing IMAX release ever.
IMAX also continues to debut more local content in France, including the first concert ever to be released through the Filmed for IMAX camera program, “INDOCHINE’S CENTRAL TOUR”, which topped the French box office in November 2022. Additionally, this month saw the release of the “The Three Musketeers: D’Artagnan”.
The three new Megarama locations in France and Morocco will be equipped with IMAX with Laser, IMAX’s most advanced experience. Immersive by design, IMAX with Laser has been developed from the ground-up to deliver crystal clear, lifelike images and precision audio for a moviegoing experience unlike anything else. It is set apart by a groundbreaking 4k laser projection system that features a new optical engine, custom designed lenses, and a suite of proprietary technology that delivers brighter images with increased resolution, deeper contrast, and the widest range of colors exclusively to IMAX systems.
