IMAX Stock Price Spikes As 'Project Hail Mary' Dominates 20% Of Box Office—On 1% Of Screens

IMAX Corporation (NYSE:IMAX) and AMC Entertainment Holdings, Inc’s (NYSE:AMC) prayers have been answered in the form of “Project Hail Mary.” The Ryan Gosling space comedy delivered a strong box office debut at a time when movie-theater attendance is rapidly declining. IMAX generated $28 million globally from Amazon.com Inc (NASDAQ:AMZN)/MGM’s “Project Hail Mary,” including $16.4 million in North America—about 20% of the film’s domestic opening despite playing on just 1% of screens, marking one of the few releases where IMAX contributed such a large share. International IMAX box office added $11.2 million, with strong market share, including 34% of the film’s debut in China, while early IMAX 70mm screenings brought in $2 million with a $122,000 per-screen average, driven by strong demand. The film was shot with IMAX-certified cameras and features nearly two hours of expanded aspect ratio, optimized for the IMAX experience. AMC Sees Strong Admissions Growth “Project Hail Mary” also delivered AMC’s biggest opening weekend of 2026 so far, helping drive the company’s second-highest admissions revenue weekend of the year across its U.S. and global theaters. The film’s strong debut—along with other releases—pushed AMC’s global admissions revenue more than 70% above the same weekend in 2025. Whether this highlights strong audience demand for theatrical experiences remains to be seen. Annual ticket revenue plummeted to less than $3 billion in 2020 due to the Covid pandemic and never truly recovered. In 2025, movie theaters sold just over $9 billion in ticket sales, according to Comscore data. Technical Analysis IMAX is trading 2.5% below its 20-day simple moving average (SMA), but 4.7% above its 100-day SMA, which keeps the intermediate trend constructive even as the short-term trend works through a cooldown. Shares are up 41.72% over the past 12 months and are closer to their 52-week highs than their lows, trading in the $20.48 to $43.16 range. The RSI is at 41.89, which sits in neutral territory but closer to the lower end of the range, suggesting momentum has cooled rather than overheated. Meanwhile, MACD is at -0.0152, while the signal line is at 0.5008, with a negative histogram (-0.5160) indicating bearish pressure still lingering under the surface. The combination of RSI in the 30–50 range and bearish MACD suggests mixed momentum. Key Resistance: $43.00 Key Support: $33.50 Earnings & Analyst Outlook Looking further out, the next major catalyst for the stock arrives with the April 22, 2026 (estimated) earnings report. EPS Estimate: 19 cents (Up from 13 cents YoY) Revenue Estimate: $86.44 million (Down from $86.70 million YoY) Valuation: P/E of 58.2x (Indicates premium valuation relative to peers) Analyst Consensus & Recent Actions: The stock carries a Buy Rating with an average price target of $44.44. Recent analyst moves include: Goldman Sachs: Neutral (Raises Target to $41.00) (March 2) Macquarie: Outperform (Raises Target to $45.00) (February 26) JPMorgan: Overweight (Raises Target to $48.00) (February 26) Price Action IMAX shares were up 4.96% at $38.51 at the time of publication on Monday, according to Benzinga Pro data. Photo via Shutterstock