IMAX Learns Portuguese

It seems as if the IMAX (NASDAQ:IMAX) passport is getting more stamped-on these days than an ink pad at a nursery-school art class. Last week the company announced that it was building its fourth big-screen theater in Russia. Yesterday it announced that it was working on its first installation in the populous nation of Brazil.

Why is IMAX proving to be such a popular export? It seems as if the same multiplex-depressing trend that has seen movie theater attendance shrink for three straight years has been contagious. All over the world, DVD releases are coming out quicker and living rooms are being treated to home theater makeovers.

That's why you've seen a flurry of bankruptcies and consolidation in the industry. Regal Entertainment (NYSE:RGC) and Carmike (NASDAQ:CKEC) remain as the only publicly traded theater operators in a sector that may continue to contract until the movie houses adapt to what consumers want out of a night at the movies.

Theater chains have to try to harder to justify their event-driven experiences, and that's where IMAX steps in with its MPX model. A bit smaller than its original cinematic monster, the MPX still packs a multi-sensory wallop in a format that can coexist alongside a multiplex's conventional projections.

Brazil's first IMAX screen will go into the Palladium Shopping Center in Curitiba. It will be the region's largest mall, serving a beefy metropolitan population of 2 million local residents.

It's yet another reason to get excited about IMAX, as it toils away in breathing new life into an industry that can sorely use the resuscitation. IMAX screens have been featuring vibrant, digitally remastered current releases like Batman Begins and Charlie & the Chocolate Factory that take the silver screen to golden-ticket extremes. Along the way, IMAX also has its award-winning, bigger-than-life documentaries and 3-D features.

It's why IMAX is growing at a time when the rest of the industry is shrinking. It's also why the stock was a worthy addition recently to the Motley Fool Rule Breakers newsletter service, which highlights industry-altering growth stocks.

Now all IMAX needs is to brush up on the collection of Portuguese words for enormous.

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Longtime Fool contributor Rick Munarriz has been to a handful of IMAX screenings and has been wowed every time. He does not own shares in any of the companies in this story. The Fool has a disclosure policy. He is also part of the Rule Breakers newsletter research team, seeking out tomorrow's ultimate growth stocks a day early.