{"id":1945,"date":"2026-05-19T19:14:00","date_gmt":"2026-05-19T19:14:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/2026\/05\/19\/imax-near-to-replacing-narnia-in-exclusive-thanksgiving-2026-release-slot\/"},"modified":"2026-05-19T19:14:00","modified_gmt":"2026-05-19T19:14:00","slug":"imax-near-to-replacing-narnia-in-exclusive-thanksgiving-2026-release-slot","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/2026\/05\/19\/imax-near-to-replacing-narnia-in-exclusive-thanksgiving-2026-release-slot\/","title":{"rendered":"Imax Near to Replacing \u2018Narnia\u2019 in Exclusive Thanksgiving 2026 Release Slot"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

\tGreta Gerwig<\/a>\u2019s Narnia<\/a>, <\/em>moving from a Thanksgiving 2026 release to open in theaters on Feb. 12,\u00a02027, before heading to Netflix<\/a>, has left Imax<\/a> having to fill a now-open exclusive Thanksgiving berth later this year.<\/p>\n

\tAnd Imax CEO Rich Gelfond was chomping at the bit on Tuesday to announce his exclusive replacement release for Thanksgiving 2026, but decided against making that the headline. \u201cObviously it\u2019s a good time of the year to release a movie, and I was hoping on this call to be able to announce what\u2019s going into that slot, and we\u2019re really close,\u201d Gelfond told the J.P. Morgan Global Technology, Media and Telecommunications Conference in Boston during a session that was webcast. \t<\/p>\n

\t\u201cWe\u2019re on the verge of replacing it,\u201d Gelfond added as he appeared via a video link, as he continues to recover from a temporary medical leave to undergo treatment for pneumonia and cannot do air travel. The original pact Imax had with Netflix for Narnia <\/em>was to have seen \u00a0the C.S. Lewis book series adaptation get a global release in Imax theaters during the key Thanksgiving holiday period, two weeks before the online debut.<\/p>\n

\tGelfond added that, despite the release date shift for Narnia,<\/em> the exclusive Thanksgiving release for the film technologies company will continue this year and into future years. \u201cLonger term, I think the model that we put together will continue to exist. You know, it may be a different partner, it may be different specific terms. But I\u2019m quite confident that we\u2019re having an Imax exclusive release along the lines of what we talked about,\u201d Gelfond added. \t<\/p>\n

\tHe also discussed Walt Disney<\/a> unveiling\u00a0Infinity Vision, a new certification for premium large format (PLF) theaters, starting with the September re-release of Marvel Studios\u2019\u00a0Avengers: Endgame<\/em>, followed by the December release of Marvel Studios\u2019\u00a0Avengers: Doomsday,\u00a0<\/em>while Imax locked up\u00a0\u30c7\u30e5\u30fc\u30f33\u00a0<\/em>for an exclusive three-week run in a major holiday showdown.<\/p>\n

\tGelfond said Imax had a deal with Warner Bros. and Legendary to release \u30c7\u30e5\u30fc\u30f33<\/em>, which ruled out play for Avengers: Doomsday<\/em> on his giant screens. \u201cWe wish we could have played Avengers,<\/em> and Disney understands that, and I think Disney\u2019s going to be great with it,\u201d he argued.<\/p>\n

\tGelfond added that, absent Imax screens for Avengers: Doomsday<\/em>, Disney branding PLF screens as Infinity Vision was little more than a marketing play. \u201cThey created kind of a marketing vehicle called Infinity Vision, which enables them to \u2018brand\u2019 their release. It\u2019s important to note there\u2019s no additional screens. It\u2019s just kind of a branding move on their part,\u201d he insisted.<\/p>\n

\tGelfond also expressed frustration with an Imax stock price that has fallen of late as investors worry about Hollywood tentpoles that underperform, while others break out at the multiplex. \u201cI think people are needlessly worried, but we\u2019re not,\u201d Gelfond added as he expressed confidence in the movie slate coming out of the major studio supplier for the rest of 2026.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Greta Gerwig\u2019s Narnia, moving from a Thanksgiving 2026 release to open in theaters on Feb. 12,\u00a02027, before heading to Netflix, has left Imax having to fill a now-open exclusive Thanksgiving berth later this year. And Imax CEO Rich Gelfond was chomping at the bit on Tuesday to announce his exclusive replacement release for Thanksgiving 2026, but decided against making that the headline. \u201cObviously it\u2019s a good time of the year to release a movie, and I was hoping on this call to be able to announce what\u2019s going into that slot, and we\u2019re really close,\u201d Gelfond told the J.P. Morgan Global Technology, Media and Telecommunications Conference in Boston during a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1946,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[548,2,1216,27,60,549,93,1217,418],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1945","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-greta-gerwig","category-hollywood","category-imax","category-movie-news","category-movies","category-narnia","category-netflix","category-richard-gelfond","category-walt-disney"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1945","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1945"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1945\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1946"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1945"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1945"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1945"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}