CEO of Imax speaks of Hollywood strikes shaking up cinema release schedule: “We’ll fill things in”

Richard Gelfond, CEO of Imax, says the giant screen technology company is well prepared to hold back Hollywood’s theatrical release schedule due to ongoing strikes by writers and actors.

“Imax is an incredibly agile company. The strike is on. There has been a lot of publicity about it,” Gelfond told the Goldman Sachs Communcacopia + Technology Conference.

Hollywood studio marketers have had to cancel media tours due to the double strikes of the Writers Guild of America and SAG-AFTRA, in which guilds bar their members from promoting films from an affected company. Changes to the release schedule so far include MGM hopefully postponing the September release of the Luca Guadagnino awards Challengersstarring Zendaya, through 2024, while Warner Bros. and Legendary Entertainment have done the same with Dune 2.

Instead of Denis Villeneuve’s Dune This fall, Imax will be showing alternative Hollywood tentpoles like Nia DaCosta’s The miraclesthe latest from Lionsgate hunger games continued and those of Apple Killers of the Flower Moon.

“Now that it’s moved, all three of us can play and have a great title next year DuneGelfond told the investor conference. Imax will also screen the upcoming film about the Taylor Swift concert tour in October.

“Our customers aren’t going to sit back and shake their heads and I certainly won’t, because given who we are and what our brand stands for, it’s very likely we’ll fill things in,” he added.

Imax will also program local language movies in select markets in the event of continued disruption to the Hollywood theatrical release schedule due to the double strikes.

“We have a lot of levers to press. So no, I don’t think people are that concerned about the strikes,” concludes Gelfond.