IMAX is reportedly in talks with buyers over a potential sale of the large-format cinema company, The Wall Street Journal reports.

Talks are at an early stage, and IMAX representatives are not publicly commenting on the WSJ’s story, but that hasn’t stopped shares in IMAX from jumping by almost 11 percent after the news broke yesterday.

IMAX CEO Richard Gelfond told investors in December that IMAX is valuable because customers are willing to pay more to watch movies on their technology, whether it’s IMAX screenings showing in the traditional 1.90:1 aspect ratio or the digital 1.43:1 aspect ratio, or movies filmed on the company’s enormous analog cameras that produce 70mm negatives.

“So as this trend accelerates, IMAX becomes an incredibly valuable player, either as a wholly differentiated publicly traded company or as part of a larger company with the keys to unlock even greater value and are strong business worldwide,” Gelfond told investors, per The Hollywood Reporter.

Indeed, IMAX’s box office share of the U.S. domestic market rose last year to take 5.2 percent. Its global market has increased too: from 3.1 percent to 3.8 percent.

Many cinephiles are choosing to see films like the recent blockbuster Project Hail Mary at an IMAX theater where the audio and picture are enhanced when compared to standard screens. The recent Avatar movie, Fire and Ash, also performed well at IMAX.

It’s even more impressive when considering that IMAX screens account for just one percent of all the movie screens in North America. The Hollywood Reporter notes that IMAX captured 20 percent of the opening weekend tickets for smash hits last year, like Sinners and Mission: Impossible — The Final Reckoning.

IMAX screens are rare, but IMAX theaters capable of showing film projections from actual IMAX negatives are even rarer. Christopher Nolan’s upcoming epic The Odyssey is the first-ever film to be shot entirely on IMAX cameras, yet only 41 theaters in the entire world will be capable of putting on a 70mm screening. And even out of those 41 theaters, not all are confirmed because PetaPixel has discovered that a handful of those theaters are having a tough time finding a projectionist capable of doing the job.

Image credits: Header photo licensed via Depositphotos.

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