Imax Keeps Coming

Imax shares jumped more than $4 Wednesday, February 16, 2000, on the NASDAQ after the company reported solid year-end and fourth-quarter earnings, and its bosses enthused about the future of cinema - a future for which, it so happens, Imax is ideally positioned.Earnings for the fiscal year ended December 31, 1999 were $25.2 million, or 83¢ per share, compared with last yearís $794,000, or 3¢ per share.The results exceeded analyst expectations, noted Bill Scovin, Managing Director of Auerbach Pollak and Richardson in New York. ""Iím very bullish on Imax,"" Scovin said. ""I think the core giant screen theater business is coming into its own.""Revenues jumped 7 percent to $203.5 million, the result of higher film revenues and the inclusion of Digital Projection Internationalís (DPI)ís revenues, which the company acquired last year.Scovin and other analysts are impressed with Imaxís acquisition of DPI, which is a digital projection company, and its stated intention to become a leader in digital cinema, also called e-cinema. ""We expect to be one of not a large number of players,"" Co-CEO Rich Gelfond said.Earnings for the fourth quarter were $17.8 million, or 53¢ per share, the highest of any quarter in Imaxís history, compared with a loss of $16.4 million, or 56¢ a share, for the fourth quarter last year.Gelfond and Co-CEO Brad Wechsler expect earnings to continue to grow thanks to ""the boost in theater performance from the launch of Disneyís Fantasia 2000 on January 1, the continued growth of the Imax theater network, the increasing level of Hollywood film product for Imax theaters, and our recent acquisition of Digital Projection International.""Imax shares closed Wednesday, February 16, 2000 on the NASDAQ at $28 1/8, up from Tuesdayís close of 24 1/4.