Prepare to see athletes representing Team USA at the 2024 Summer Olympics like you’ve never seen them before: on the big screen.
For the first time in Olympic Games history, the 2024 Paris Summer Games will be shown in cinemas across the country. More than 150 IMAX theaters will broadcast the opening ceremony live on July 26. And starting July 27, 160 AMC theaters across the country will show select live coverage from NBC daily until the end of the Games on August 11.
“Sports fans like to cheer together, and during the finals [Summer] During the Olympics, we noticed the viewing parties in the United States that NBC presented during their coverage,” Ryan Noonan, vice president of corporate communications at AMC Theaters, told Yahoo Entertainment. “Whether it was a hometown crowd coming together to cheer on their local Olympic athlete or youth sports clubs gathering to support their favorite competitors, there was clearly interest in these gatherings and group viewing parties.”
The growing popularity of virtual viewing parties inspired the collaboration between NBC and AMC Theaters to bring the Olympics to the big screen, he said.
“This is a whole new ball game,” says host Jason Squire The Movie Business Podcast and professor emeritus at the USC School of Cinematic Arts, told Yahoo, explaining that bringing live sporting events to the big screen is a “win-win” for everyone.
Opening ceremony
The Olympic Games Opening Ceremony on July 26 will air live for the first time ever in select IMAX theaters nationwide, beginning at 1:30 PM ET.
This year’s ceremony will be a four-mile trip down the Seine, with roughly a hundred boats carrying thousands of athletes as they sail past some of Paris’ most iconic landmarks. It ends in Trocadéro.
The theater locations have yet to be confirmed but will be made public before tickets go on sale on June 26, an IMAX spokesperson told Yahoo. Fans who want to watch with friends can also rent entire IMAX theaters, with prices determined by the location.
Watching the matches
Showings of NBC’s Olympic coverage are expected to last about four hours per day per showing, Noonan said.
One ticket gives you access for a time slot on the day of purchase. According to Fandango, the shows will begin at different times each day between 11am and 2pm ET depending on the event schedule, and will cover sports such as basketball, swimming, volleyball and track and field.
Olympic fans who want a more private big-screen viewing experience can buy out the theater through AMC’s group sales portal for large group screenings.
MAP: See if a movie theater near you is showing the Olympics
“If you build it, they will come.”
People are interested in the theater experience for more than just movies. According to a 2024 Fandango survey, ticket buyers who were surveyed said that comedy tours, concert films, TV premieres and finales, and sporting events were among the top events they would want to see in a theater.
Movie theaters continue to find innovative ways to sell seats this summer, which Squire said is typically the “most profitable time of year” for the film industry.
“The film industry is in dire straits,” he explained. “Showing the Olympics on the big screen is a test of how many seats theaters can fill without the draw of big-name celebrities or big-budget films.”
After the theatrical release of Taylor Swift: The Eras Tourwhich generated more than $261 million in global box office sales, Squire said fans are hungry for new ways to enjoy live events, such as sports and concerts, without the burden of rising ticket prices.
“It’s like being in an arena,” he said of watching sporting events in a movie theater. “You have infused the camaraderie with a classic cinematic experience of being together and all the appeal that has.”
Recent IMAX screenings of the Disney+ documentary The beach boys, as well as the upcoming showings of the NBA Finals in Hong Kong and Taiwan are signs that a new frontier is being forged around fan experiences and live events, he explained.
“It’s an extension of the fan culture and the brand culture,” says Squire, who expects NBC and the Olympics to mount expensive marketing campaigns ahead of the screenings that rival those of Hollywood films.
Should fans pack the theaters, he added, it could potentially be a game-changer for AMC Theaters, which struggled with box office sales after the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic forced theaters to temporarily close, and twin Hollywood strikes in 2023. delaying film production and theatrical distribution. The summer box office has yet to shape up as Hollywood expected.
“It’s never been done before,” he said of the Olympics displays. “But history shows that if you build it, they will come.”
