Imax Adds China Screens With Wanda, Betting on Blockbusters

Imax Corp.’s Chinese arm is aggressively adding screens across the country, betting on big local and US productions to boost its sales in the world’s second-largest film market.

Partner Wanda Film Holding Co., China’s largest movie exhibitor, is planning to replace 27 premium format screens with Imax’s larger high-tech jumbo screens in cities from Beijing to Xi’an, the companies said Monday. Imax China Holding Inc., which currently runs about 800 screens in China, drew a record 22 million moviegoers from January to May, up 106% from a year earlier, largely thanks to fantasy film Ne Zha 2. The overall movie attendance in China rose about 27% in the same period, the firm said.