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The summer box office is booming. You have movies like Deadpool and Wolverine crossing that one billion dollar mark at the global box office this summer. Plus, Disney and Pixar's Inside Out two became the highest grossing animated movie of all time. Goat status there. Here to weigh in on the movie milestones, we've got Richard Gelfond, who is the CEO of IMAX joining us in studio. Always a pleasure to catch up with you, Richard.

Great to see you too.

So take us into why you think some of these titles are are doing so well, setting these new high marks. We just mentioned two of them, Inside Out two and Deadpool and Wolverine.

Well, if you look at the context, it's kind of ironic. During the pandemic and during the writer's strike, you know, everybody was talking a narrative around around streaming, around different kinds of things, and they kind of forgot about theatrical. And I think theatrical was really pushed down during the pandemic, you couldn't leave your house. So, how are we going to go to the movies? And then last year with the strikes a lot of things got delayed, so the first half of this year was a little touch and go. But I think these forces have finally lifted off and as I say, it's somewhat ironic that the part of Hollywood that's really working now is the good old fashioned movie business. And you know, you look at back-to-back billion dollar movies as you said, with inside out and with Wolverine, Deadpool and there's a lot coming up for the rest of the year. You have Beetlejuice, you have Joker with Lady Gaga and Joaquin Phoenix, you have Mufasa, you have Gladiator. You know, people weren't really focused on what was out there. The 25 slate. I don't want to take up the whole time, but you know, there's fantastic in 25 and 26. So the world's just back to normal.

When you think about the experience economy and movies as a subset and with in within that, how are you looking at the consumer experience? What is your reading on the consumer as they're still trying to figure out and pick and choose where they want to spend into experiences, movies included?

Well, IMAX, we, you know, we're an experienced company. We deliver out of home experiences, and as you know, we're different than regular movies because you feel like you're inside the experience. And we've been opening our aperture even and say, it's not just movies, it's other things we could do. So whether it's the Taylor Swift concert, or we just did the opening ceremony of the Olympics, or we did some of the NBA finals. And I think the public really craves premium out of home experiences, and our market share has been going up steadily since um since the pandemic, both domestically and internationally. So I think the consumer is back into experiences, and again, we could broaden it beyond movies, looking at sports events, looking at concerts, looking at, you know, like Formula One. I think there's, uh, you know, the public is ready to to live their lives even more so.

All right, if the Sixers make it to the NBA finals next year, I will be watching it from an IMAX theater. I can guarantee you that myself, and I hope for it here. When you think about the next immersive experience that you want to see and and need to see IMAX really excel in, what does that experience look like?

So, where IMAX has done really well and beyond just normally good, has been where we film the movies with their own cameras. So we did Oppenheimer last year, had did 20% of the box office. We did, and this on less than 1% of the screens. We did Dune two this year, filmed an IMAX, and again, 20% of the box office on less than 1% screen. So next year we have 14 films that were shot with IMAX cameras, which is more than double any other year because of the success of Oppenheimer and Dune and where that's going. And from May through September, um we have only films shot with IMAX cameras. So I think when you see that and back to back to back to back, I think you're gonna see even more incremental market share gains, and I think people are gonna continue to seek out the IMAX experience.

When you have mega deals come through like the Paramount merger with Skydance, what does that mean for how productions might change? You were just talking about it's more beneficial having IMAX technology on set while this filming is being done. Do mega deals like that impact the cost structure for how major productions are are able to eventually be filmed and then uh even be taken to theater experiences?

I I think that's not they might, but that's not the most important point is who the management is of the new company. And companies like Disney and Warner and Universal have really pivoted back to theatrical because they've discovered that that increases the value of the content, not just theatrically but in streaming and across the whole chain. And David Ellison is a huge theatrical fan. Um, we've done a lot of business with him at Skydance separately for the last decade. Um, he's involved in their franchises like Mission Impossible and Top Gun and a lot of things. So for us, I think it's very good, but more generally it depends what the management's philosophy is.

Richard, always a pleasure to check in with you here. It's always the fun conversations to have around the experience economy. Richard Gelfond who is the IMAX CEO joining us on set. Good to see you, Richard.

Good to see you too.

Absolutely.