IMAX: what's the big deal?

Cafe Society
1

I’ve just been to see my first film on an IMAX screen (Harry Potter) and was pretty disappointed.

I’d always heard about how the screen is huge, it’s really immersive, and so on, but I’d say the screen was only about 25% bigger than a normal one (it was a normal-sized cinema, but the screen went from floor to ceiling). The picture quality was a little sharper than usual, but nothing amazing, and because it was digital, in certain scenes I could see a faint “grid” on the screen because of the gap between each pixel.

So why do people rave about IMAX, and why do they pay 1.5 times the normal ticket price to see it?

Is it just that normal screens have got bigger and higher-quality over the years, so IMAX doesn’t seem as impressive now as when it was new?

Have I just been ripped off by some sort of imitation claiming to be IMAX?

Or is it just me: am I missing something? (I went on my own, so I couldn’t ask anyone else’s opinion!)

2

Regular movies transferred to IMAX are ok. Not great. See a movie that was filmed on an IMAX camera and you will see a big difference. I still prefer to see a movie in IMAX especially a special effects heavy one. The sound and picture are better and so is the 3D. Its your choice if its worth the price.

3

True IMAX screens are much, much larger than normal movie screens. They are about 60 feet high and 80 feet wide. It’s not remotely comparable to a regular movie screen. Nor is IMAX digital. It is a 70 mm film format.

However, what you probably saw is the IMAX Digital Theatre System. That’s a version of IMAX intended for multiplexes. Not only is it digital, and therefore much lower resolution, but the screens are smaller than the true IMAX theater screens.

If that’s what you saw, I don’t blame you for being disappointed. A good IMAX film shot for IMAX is a true experience. IMAX may be ruining its reputation by diluting its brand this way.

4

Yeah, it looks like that’s the case. I’ve done some digging and found this in the small print on their website: -

So it looks like they’ve only got one “real” IMAX in the whole country. There was no explanation in the cinema itself, though…pretty misleading advertising, if you ask me.

5

Yeah, real IMAX screens are incredible. Hereis an image that really shows the difference in size between a true IMAX screen, and the IMAX Digital screens that are only slightly larger than standard multiplex screens.
(I saw **Avatar **at that Lincoln Square IMAX and it was absolutely worth the price increase.)

6

Even real IMAX has more than one sizes. I saw Fantasia 2000 at an IMAX in San Francisco; it was just too big. A few months later, I saw it at an IMAX in Baltimore, which was not quite as big and the movie was much easier to watch.

7

IMAX (bloody big screen version) is also in Bradford and London.