Spider-Man Broke The North American Opening Record With No IMAX Screen

IMAX Was Already Full

IMAX had no spare capacity to offer. In July, The Odyssey helped deliver $257 million in global ticket sales, the highest-grossing month in the company’s history and 47% above its previous record. That left its North American screens committed when Spider-Man opened.

IMAX licenses its projection systems to theater operators rather than owning the theaters. Its network reached 1,809 locations worldwide at the end of June, only 59 more than a year earlier. A studio cannot add hundreds of IMAX screens for one weekend. Once another film has booked them, they are unavailable.

That is the important point. Sony was not shut out because demand was uncertain. The screens had already been sold.

Two films of this scale arrived 14 days apart. The audience could grow. The number of screens could not.

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Every Available Premium Screen Filled Up

With no IMAX screens available in North America, audiences chose ScreenX and 4DX instead.

Together, the two formats earned more than $31 million worldwide, the biggest opening weekend in CJ 4DPLEX’s history. ScreenX earned $7 million in the U.S. and Canada, more than twice its previous opening record. 4DX earned $5.2 million across 77 theaters, averaging $68,000 per screen. ScreenX set opening records in 34 countries and 4DX in 19.

The theaters themselves were nearly full. Cineplex Laval sold 91% of its ScreenX seats. Regal Times Square, which has the world’s largest 4DX auditorium, sold 94%.

The exclusion was not a surprise. IMAX’s second-quarter results, published eight days before the film opened, listed Spider-Man: Brand New Day as showing in China, Japan and South Korea only.

The same demand appeared overseas, where IMAX was available. The format generated 16% of the film’s opening gross in China and 18% in Japan, even though Spider-Man shared Japanese IMAX screens with another film. In South Korea the film took $2.4 million in IMAX, the biggest IMAX opening weekend that market has recorded.

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IMAX Had To Make Room

On August 6, IMAX will begin splitting its North American digital screens between Spider-Man: Brand New Day and The Odyssey. All 41 IMAX 70mm theaters will remain with Nolan’s film.

The change came less than a week after Spider-Man’s record opening. The film could not secure IMAX screens for its debut, but its success persuaded the company to make room.

The opening showed both the size of the audience and the shortage of screens available to serve it. The record belongs to Spider-Man. The limit belongs to the screens.