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IMAX's Interstellar Release to Break Screening Records

IMAX Corp. (IMAX) has announced the biggest-ever screening of the Christopher Nolan movie, Interstellar. Globally, the film is set to release across 770 IMAX giant screens on Nov 7. However, two days ahead of the worldwide release, the much-awaited sci-fi movie will be screened in select IMAX theaters.

The IMAX 3D theaters support IMAX DMR (Digital Re-mastering) technology that offers advanced digital audio features, high-definition video, customized theater geometry and, thus an enhanced movie viewing experience.

Moreover, the most detailed sequences of the movie was shot using an IMAX 70 MM camera, which presents the audience with the most clear and vivid details of the galaxy. Notably, last year’s academy award winning flick, Gravity, was also filmed using the same camera. The movie also garnered huge box-office success.

By the end of 2014, IMAX targets to screen 34 movie titles including Interstellar and The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies, which is slated to release soon. In keeping with this, the company has already declared eight movies screenings in 2015 which includes The Avengers: Age of Ultron from the Walt Disney Studios – part of The Walt Disney Company (DIS). With an increasing number of 3D movie launches, IMAX is already in talks with several Hollywood studios over its 3D theaters which considerably enhance the experience for viewers.

In the recently concluded second quarter of 2014, IMAX recorded total revenue of $60.7 million, up 17.8% year over year and ahead of the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $60 million. In the same quarter, IMAX signed 42 new theaters compared with 35 in the last quarter.

The average global DMR box office per screen in the third quarter of 2014 was $227,900 compared with $207,500 in the prior-year quarter. The improvement was mainly buoyed by the blockbuster releases, Godzilla and Transformer 4 from Paramount Pictures Corp. – a unit of Viacom, Inc. (VIAB).

Hence, we believe that the company’s top line as well as the average global DMR box office per screen will certainly get a boost in the last quarter of 2014 and the first quarter of 2015 with the attractive upcoming movie line-ups.

IMAX currently has a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). A better-ranked stock worth at the moment is Lions Gate Entertainment Corp. (LGF) with a Zacks Rank # (3).

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