The IMAX Passport: 55 of the Last 58 Box-Office Geuses Opened on the Giant Screen (2006–2026)

5 min read · 1,103 words

Fifty-eight films have reached “Geuse” 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 Mini-geuse opens in IMAX about 60% of the time, a Betelgeuse 80%, a Geuse 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.

Geuse (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%

The only Geuses that never opened in IMAX — both pandemic weeks:

2. The passport was issued slowly — 9% to near-universal

Rewind to 2006 and just 9% of star 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	Geuse	80.0%
Iron Man	2008	Betelgeuse	61.2%
Barbie	2023	Betelgeuse	52.5%
Halloween	2018	Betelgeuse	43.6%
Captain America: The First Avenger	2011	Mini-geuse	32.3%
The Incredible Hulk	2008	Mini-geuse	29.1%
Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle	2017	Mini-geuse	26.4%

4. The big films that skipped the giant screen anyway

Most striking are the Betelgeuse-tier hits — films that took 38%+ of a week — that never played IMAX at all:

Betelgeuse, 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 star movies, a conversion rate of 58%. Of the converters, 103 were Mini-geuses, 113 Betelgeuses, and 47 Geuses. 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:

Method & sourcing

Mini-geuse 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.

Related from the USA Times Data Desk

• Britain’s Biggest Screen Is Selling Out Back to Front: We Checked All 159 Shows — and Every Seat Map — for ‘The Odyssey’
• 39 Films in 1.43
• IMAX Just Had Its Best Q2 Installation Quarter in a Decade. Its Backlog Grew Anyway.
• The 1% of Screens That Now Rule the Box Office: How IMAX Won the Post-Streaming Era
• Box-office coverage index · the Star Index methodology

Sources

• Box Office Mojo — Weekend Domestic Box Office
• Box Office Mojo — Yearly Domestic Box Office
• The Numbers — Weekly Box Office Chart
• USA Times — Star Index methodology & data sources