By Angela Palumbo
IMAX stock soared Friday after a report said the high-end-movie screen company is exploring a sale, leaving Wall Street to guess what companies could be potential buyers.
Shares jumped 15% to $38.95 in afternoon trading on Friday.
The Wall Street Journal reported Thursday night that IMAX is exploring a sale and has approached entertainment companies as potential buyers, citing people familiar with the matter. The report added that the sale process is in early stages and might not result in any deal.
IMAX didn't immediately respond to requests for comment. However, at an investor day in December, CEO Richard Gelfond said that IMAX could become "an incredibly valuable player, either as a wholly differentiated publicly-traded company or as part of a larger company with the keys to unlock even greater value and our strong business worldwide."
IMAX theaters have larger screens, higher resolution images, and more immersive sound systems than traditional theaters. People spend extra on IMAX tickets than regular tickets to get access to that more immersive experience. The question now is which company would want to purchase IMAX to have more exclusive access to the movie tech company's offerings.
Seaport analyst David Joyce wrote in a note on Friday that streaming giant Netflix could be a "logical partner."
"The company frequently vocalizes its desire to only focus on 'eventized' programming (such as non-regular-season sporting event rights), or holding rights to films that may be released exclusively on IMAX screens for two weeks before being made available on its own platform," Joyce wrote. He rates IMAX as a Buy with a $45 price target.
Netflix didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.
Netflix's upcoming Cliff Booth film with Brad Pitt will be in IMAX theaters globally for an exclusive two-week run starting Nov. 25, before going to Netflix on Dec. 23. Another Netflix movie, Narnia: The Magician's Nephew, will release in IMAX on Feb. 12, 2027, and on its streaming platform on April 2, 2027.
Netflix also backed out of the bidding war for Warner Bros. Discovery earlier this year, potentially opening it up to other merger opportunities.
Amazon.com and Apple could also be interested parties, he added.
Benchmark analyst Mike Hickey raised his price target on IMAX to $60 from $44 on Friday following the Journal's report. Hickey points to a more unique potential interested buyer of IMAX: Sphere Entertainment, the live entertainment company that owns the massive Sphere venue in Las Vegas.
"We view Sphere as particularly compelling given its focus on immersive premium entertainment experiences, where IMAX's global network, filmmaker ecosystem, and premium brand could materially expand Sphere's strategic positioning," he wrote.
Another potential buyer is Walt Disney, he added. However, last month Disney announced the launch of Infinity Vision, a direct competitor to IMAX. Disney said in its news release that it is a new certification for premium large format theaters and "will signify to audiences which auditoriums offer the biggest, brightest, and most immersive cinematic experiences."
IMAX shares fell 5.4% after Disney's Infinity Vision announcement. IMAX CFO Natasha Fernandes said on the company's first-quarter earnings call on April 30 that Infinity Vision is "a pure marketing play to try and offset the fact that they don't have an IMAX platform or brand for Avengers: Doomsday."
Regardless if an IMAX sale is in the works or not, Wall Street is broadly optimistic about the future of the stock. Of the 12 analysts surveyed by FactSet, 11 say the stock is a Buy, and one says it's a Hold.
Rosenblatt Securities analyst Steve Frankel rates the stock as a Buy with a $47 price target. He wrote Friday that he's confident in "the strength of the film slate, the company's active management of its film portfolio to maximize box office and the inherent leverage in the model that is driving margins to record levels."
Write to Angela Palumbo at angela.palumbo@dowjones.com
This content was created by Barron's, which is operated by Dow Jones & Co. Barron's is published independently from Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal.
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
May 22, 2026 14:35 ET (18:35 GMT)
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