Fifty-eight films have reached “Phenomenon” since 2006 — taking 61.8% or more of an entire week’s U.S. box office. Fifty-five of them opened in IMAX. Of the three that didn’t: two — Unhinged (2020) and Tom & Jerry (2021) — merely topped near-empty pandemic weeks. The third is the most telling film in the whole study: Spider-Man: Brand New Day (2026) opened without IMAX — not for lack of ambition, but because Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey had booked the entire IMAX network — then added IMAX two weeks later. Strip out the pandemic and that one scheduling quirk, and the biggest films of the era open on the biggest screens without exception.
1. The IMAX rate climbs with the tier
The pattern is orderly and steep: a plain Event opens in IMAX about 60% of the time, a Major event 80%, a Phenomenon 97%. The bigger the week a film commands, the more certain it began on a giant screen.
USA Times Billion-Dollar Club: one S2 star per $1 billion in worldwide gross (floor). Two stars = crossed $2B.
| Phenomenon (opened IMAX) | Year | Peak share |
|---|---|---|
| Avengers: Endgame |
2019 | 88.3% |
| Black Panther: Wakanda Forever | 2022 | 86.1% |
| Spider-Man: No Way Home |
2021 | 85.6% |
| Avatar: The Way of Water |
2022 | 83.7% |
| Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness | 2022 | 83.3% |
| Avengers: Infinity War |
2018 | 81.3% |
| Avengers: Age of Ultron |
2015 | 80.4% |
| The Batman | 2022 | 79.8% |
| The Avengers |
2012 | 79.7% |
| A Minecraft Movie | 2025 | 78.7% |
| Iron Man 3 |
2013 | 78.3% |
| Spider-Man 3 | 2007 | 78.1% |
Spider-Man: Brand New Day peaked at 80% of a July 2026 week — a Phenomenon by any measure — yet opened in standard formats only. The reason is almost poetic: every IMAX screen in the country was already committed to Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey, shot and booked exclusively for IMAX. Sony expanded Brand New Day onto IMAX on August 6, once the screens freed up. It is the first non-pandemic Phenomenon in the entire 21-year record to open without an IMAX screen — and it did so because a rival event had monopolized the format. That is the thesis of this piece in a single anecdote.
The only Phenomenons that never opened in IMAX — both pandemic weeks:
| Phenomenon, never IMAX | Year | Peak share |
|---|---|---|
| Tom & Jerry | 2021 | 65.4% |
| Unhinged | 2020 | 63.6% |
2. The passport was issued slowly — 9% to near-universal
Rewind to 2006 and just 9% of event movies opened in IMAX; the format ran on only a few dozen commercial screens. What followed was a decade-long climb as IMAX built out theaters — 45% by 2009, 92% by 2012, and a high plateau since. (IMAX DMR releases predate The Dark Knight: Spider-Man 2 played IMAX in 2004.) 2026 is running at 88% year-to-date.
3. Seven films that backed into IMAX after the fact
A rare path: skip IMAX at launch, earn it later. Three are the first Marvel entries — Iron Man, The Incredible Hulk, Captain America: The First Avenger — which reached IMAX only at the 2018 Marvel anniversary festival. Now Brand New Day joins them, alongside Barbie, Halloween and Jumanji.
| Added IMAX later | Year | Tier | Peak share |
|---|---|---|---|
| Spider-Man: Brand New Day | 2026 | Phenomenon | 80.0% |
| Iron Man | 2008 | Major event | 61.2% |
| Barbie |
2023 | Major event | 52.5% |
| Halloween | 2018 | Major event | 43.6% |
| Captain America: The First Avenger | 2011 | Event | 32.3% |
| The Incredible Hulk | 2008 | Event | 29.1% |
| Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle | 2017 | Event | 26.4% |
4. The big films that skipped the giant screen anyway
Most striking are the Major-tier hits — films that took 38%+ of a week — that never played IMAX at all:
| Major event, never IMAX | Year | Peak share |
|---|---|---|
| Tom & Jerry | 2021 | 65.4% |
| Unhinged | 2020 | 63.6% |
| Shrek the Third | 2007 | 61.7% |
| Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest |
2006 | 60.2% |
| Five Nights at Freddy’s | 2023 | 60.1% |
| Sonic the Hedgehog 2 | 2022 | 57.5% |
| Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull | 2008 | 57.0% |
| The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1 | 2014 | 56.0% |
| Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End | 2007 | 54.5% |
| Lilo & Stitch |
2025 | 54.5% |
| The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 1 | 2011 | 54.4% |
| X-Men Origins: Wolverine | 2009 | 51.4% |
5. The conversion rate: an IMAX opening pays off 58% of the time
The question from the other direction. Across 2006–2025, 450 films opened wide in IMAX in the U.S. — and 263 became event movies, a conversion rate of 58%. Of the converters, 103 were Events, 113 Major events, and 47 Phenomenons. Booking the giant screen is a real signal, but no guarantee.
The other 187 — the films that booked IMAX and never took a week — are a gallery of expensive disappointment:
| Opened in IMAX, never an event movie | Year |
|---|---|
| Mars Needs Moms | 2011 |
| John Carter | 2012 |
| Jupiter Ascending | 2015 |
| Tomorrowland | 2015 |
| Warcraft | 2016 |
| Ben-Hur | 2016 |
| Dark Phoenix | 2019 |
| Terminator: Dark Fate | 2019 |
| Madame Web | 2024 |
| Borderlands | 2024 |
| Megalopolis | 2024 |
Method & sourcing
Event tiers: Box Office Mojo weekly domestic charts (the #1 film’s share of the week’s total box office). IMAX status is matched against Wikipedia’s “List of films released in IMAX” (the IMAX DMR master list) and cross-checked film by film. The national index is complete for 2006–2025 and year-to-date for 2026; the conversion-rate section covers the closed 2006–2025 window.
- Holding the Throne
The rarest event in modern cinema: one film owning the U.S. box office two weeks running.
- One Movie, Most of the Money
How total box-office domination went from exception to the norm.
- The 20-Year Event-Movie Index
The complete USA Times index of every event movie since 2006.
- The Event Movies of 2026, So Far
Updated weekly: which films are taking the whole market this year.
