For film fans of all kinds (even the ones who make their living in the cinematic arts), going far afield to see a film in a unique format is something of a badge of honor. Consider this anecdote shared by Phoenix Theatres owner Cory Jacobson and VP of Project Development Jordan Hohman: earlier this year, an employee of their Midwest-based regional theater chain drove all the way from Cleveland, Ohio to the Lincoln Center theater in New York City in order to see “The Brutalist” projected on 70mm. That’s over 450 miles.
Options to see Brady Corbet’s film on the biggest screen or in that premium film stock were extremely limited in the Midwest — even for those who work at theaters — with most needing to travel to the Music Box in Chicago to even have a chance at seeing a movie that way.
With Christopher Nolan’s “The Odyssey” on the horizon, Phoenix Theatres is now looking to put in its own 70mm projector at one of its nine locations. Already the theater being converted has newly-added heated recliners, a black box aesthetic, and waterfall curtains, all to make the experience for that very movie and others beyond it unique in the region.
“You’re offering something that’s really extremely unusual. And also, I think it’s sought after by a younger clientele who’s intensely interested,” Hohman told IndieWire.
It’s no surprise that for some of these event titles, seeing it in the best format possible isn’t just the best way, it’s the only way. IMAX and Premium Large Format screens, or PLFs, account for only a fraction of the total theaters in the country, but can often drive a significant portion of the box office revenue on a given movie. It’s grown a lot since COVID, when many exhibitors took advantage of dark, empty theaters to do some much-needed renovations.
But how much do they really matter to a movie’s overall success? In some cases, competition for placement on those screens can get fierce. When a movie like Taylor Swift’s “The Eras Tour” concert was a surprise release that took over theaters and screens with minimal notice, distributors were pissed, and box office for a few titles suffered.
In the case of “Oppenheimer” two years ago, which had a lockdown on IMAX screens and the majority of other PLFs, it annoyed not only Tom Cruise, who lost those premium screens for Week 2 of “Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning,” but also Warner Bros. and “Barbie,” which wanted as many showtimes as possible on any screen (don’t worry, that one did fine). And despite Netflix leadership continually slagging on theatrical, the streamer is giving Greta Gerwig’s “Narnia” movie a special IMAX release, and now rival studios will likely tiptoe around that film’s release date if they want their own screens.
“Awareness is a very hard thing for people to come by these days, and anything you can do to get that edge is meaningful,” said Adam Rymer, Chief Commercial Officer at Regal Entertainment. “Beyond what you used to feel like it was just a conversation around spectacle type films, if you think of Christopher Nolan and James Cameron, where you were getting people out to see something that was what felt like a massive, everybody needs to see this kind of a title, it’s now applying to a lot more films.”
PLFs is a catchall term for a lot of screens and formats that aren’t created equal. Industry types use it to refer to films shown in 35mm or 70mm, in Dolby Atmos, or on mega, 65-foot screens, but it also includes theaters equipped with things like Screen X (which extends the image along the sides of the theater), 4DX (basically an amusement park ride while you’re watching a movie), or in Regal’s RPX showings, which are haptic feedback seats that some exhibitors colloquially call “Butt Kickers.” Cinemark, Regal, and smaller chains have their own proprietary PLF screens, and IMAX, while still technically a large format offered for a premium up charge, doesn’t like to lump itself in with other PLF offerings.
That’s because IMAX has its own specific tech, and IMAX largely chooses for exhibitors what movies play on their screens, which is why some theater owners choose to go their own route and have the option to mix and match. Jacobson said on their Dolby Atmos screens they were able to zig while others zagged, getting solid results from putting “The Black Phone 2” and the “Back to the Future” re-release on the PLFs while others were stuck with the fizzling “Tron: Ares.”
Sean Gamble, CEO at Cinemark, said in a recent earnings call that PLFs have been a massive form of growth for the industry since 2019. But he said the revenue they bring in still only accounts for 15 percent of the total box office. And because the only movies generally playing on those screens are the biggest new releases and have a higher price point, they’ve made the box office’s recovery these last few years look bigger than it actually is.
On a film by film level, as well as theater by theater, PLFs can be immensely important. Hohman says that at Phoenix Theatres, 29 percent of their screens are PLFs, but they generate 40 percent of their attendance. Dave Corkill, who leads the California-based CinemaWest chain, said 30 percent of his theaters’ attendees are coming in specifically for those specialty brands.
IMAX each week proudly touts the percentage of box office their 400 screens in North America alone generate for a given film’s opening weekend. In 2025, four different movies that opened above $30 million at the domestic box office saw 20 percent or better of their total haul come from IMAX. “One Battle After Another” and the re-release of “Avatar: The Way of Water” this year also did 20+ percent in IMAX but didn’t open as high. As was the case the last couple of years, the overall domestic box office was down, 11 percent year over year this past quarter, but IMAX was up 29 percent.
One studio source we spoke with qualified those claims a little. Not all movies live and die by being on the biggest screen possible, and he’s not losing sleep if he doesn’t have as many 3D showings of his movie than that of a rival distributor. He also explains that when a movie makes 15 percent of its box office through IMAX, it’s not as though the movie would have grossed 15 percent less overall if it was on no IMAX, even if IMAX would love to say that money was solely because of them. These are the biggest blockbusters of the year, and while the total might be less without IMAX and its premium up charge, the box office gross will find a way.
That hasn’t stopped studios from plastering the IMAX logo on all its marketing materials or putting out literal punch cards of all the different premium ways you can see a movie like “One Battle After Another.” Just having your movie associated with IMAX or other PLFs gives it some prestige, and the studio exec agreed there’s no denying that audiences are voting with their wallet to get the higher quality experience, packing seats at the highest price point first before other cheaper showings fill up.
The demand then for these experiences from both consumers and studios has gone way up. Corkill says his company’s goal is to “grab on to every premium format that’s available now,” all as part of an expansion project through the middle of next year. He’s seen his repeat guests who first choose Screen X then try something in 4DX on the next visit, and it’s an experience he wants to replicate.
“What we’re trying to do as a company is put enough brands under the roof of our building that we create a repetitive movie goer that desires to go out to the movies, and if something doesn’t happen to be in a premium format, we want to create the desire to continue to come to the movie theater,” Corkill said.
There’s a chicken and egg dilemma though: it’s costly to justify putting in an upgraded screen at an underperforming theater. It’s easier to justify it in a big city, but harder when it’s the suburbs and you actually have to install and maintain them.
“We’re being very careful about how we expand them and seeing where the demand is on a local theater-by-theater basis so we can continue to capture that demand on the studio side,” Rymer said.
No matter the size of the screen, there’s challenges facing exhibition and distributors alike. Exhibitors still believe that it’s not an issue of too few PLF screens but too few movies to put on them. Distributors would counter that the popularity of PLFs prove the multiplex experience has sucked for too long, and if they are going to leave their house and skip streaming, they’re going to want the best.
“How do we promote the premium format screens without taking anything away from our standard screens. Because what we get concerned about happening is people feel like the only way to see something is in these premium formats and that a standard screen isn’t exciting enough,” Rymer said. We do try to balance that aspect of it as well, of really making sure we’re marketing the experience of going to a movie theater regardless of what it is that you’re seeing.”