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IMAX is a proprietary system of high-resolution cameras, film formats,
film projector A movie projector is an opto-mechanical device for displaying motion picture film by projecting it onto a screen. Most of the optical and mechanical elements, except for the illumination and sound devices, are present in movie cameras. Modern ...
s, and
theater Theatre or theater is a collaborative form of performing art that uses live performers, usually actors or actresses, to present the experience of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place, often a stage. The perfor ...
s known for having very large screens with a tall aspect ratio (approximately either 1.43:1 or 1.90:1) and steep stadium seating. Graeme Ferguson,
Roman Kroitor Roman Kroitor (December 12, 1926 – September 17, 2012) was a Canadian filmmaker who was known as an early practitioner of ''cinéma vérité'', as co-founder of IMAX, and as creator of the Sandde hand-drawn stereoscopic animation system. ...
, Robert Kerr, and William C. Shaw were the co-founders of what would be named the IMAX Corporation (founded in September 1967 as Multiscreen Corporation, Limited), and they developed the first IMAX cinema projection standards in the late 1960s and early 1970s in Canada. IMAX GT is the large format as originally conceived. It uses very large screens of and, unlike most conventional film projectors, the film runs horizontally so that the image width can be greater than the width of the
film stock Film stock is an analog medium that is used for recording motion pictures or animation. It is recorded on by a movie camera, developed, edited, and projected onto a screen using a movie projector. It is a strip or sheet of transparent ...
. It is called a 70/15 format. It is used exclusively in purpose-built theaters and dome theaters, and many installations limit themselves to a projection of high quality, short documentaries. The high costs involved in the construction and maintenance of the dedicated buildings and projectors suggested the introduction of several compromises in the following years. To reduce costs, the IMAX SR and MPX systems were introduced in 1998 and 2004, respectively. The smaller projectors were used to retrofit existing theaters, so as to make IMAX available to multiplex and existing theaters, though losing much of the quality of the GT experience. Later came the introduction of the IMAX Digital 2K and IMAX with Laser 4K in 2008 and 2015 respectively, still limited in respect to the 70 megapixels of equivalent resolution of the original 15/70 film. Both technologies are purely digital and suitable to retrofit existing theaters. Since 2018, the Laser system has been employed to retrofit full dome installations, with limited results due to the large area of a dome screen.


History

The IMAX film standard uses
70 mm film 70 mm film (or 65 mm film) is a wide high-resolution film gauge for motion picture photography, with a negative area nearly 3.5 times as large as the standard 35 mm motion picture film format. As used in cameras, the film is wid ...
run through the projector horizontally. This technique produces an area that is about 8.3 times as large as the 35 mm format, and about 3.4 times as large as 70 mm film run through the projector vertically.How Regular Movies Become "IMAX" Films
by Mark Wilson (Gizmodo.com, published May 29, 2009)
The desire to increase the visual impact of film has a long history. In 1929, Fox introduced Fox Grandeur, the first 70 mm film format, but it quickly fell from use. In the 1950s, the potential of 35 mm film to provide wider projected images was explored in the processes of
CinemaScope CinemaScope is an anamorphic lens series used, from 1953 to 1967, and less often later, for shooting widescreen films that, crucially, could be screened in theatres using existing equipment, albeit with a lens adapter. Its creation in 1953 by ...
(1953) and VistaVision (1954), following multi-
projector A projector or image projector is an optical device that projects an image (or moving images) onto a surface, commonly a projection screen. Most projectors create an image by shining a light through a small transparent lens, but some newer typ ...
systems such as Cinerama (1952). While impressive, Cinerama was difficult to install and maintain, requiring careful alignment and synchronization of the multiple projectors. During
Expo 67 The 1967 International and Universal Exposition, commonly known as Expo 67, was a general exhibition from April 27 to October 29, 1967. It was a category One World's Fair held in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It is considered to be one of the most su ...
in Montreal, the
National Film Board of Canada The National Film Board of Canada (NFB; french: Office national du film du Canada (ONF)) is Canada's public film and digital media producer and distributor. An agency of the Government of Canada, the NFB produces and distributes documentary fi ...
's '' In the Labyrinth'' and Ferguson's ''Man and the Polar Regions'' both used complex multi-projector, multi-screen systems. Each encountered technical difficulties that led them to found a company called "Multiscreen", with the goal of developing a simpler approach.


Multiscreen Corporation

The single-projector/single-camera system they eventually settled upon was designed and built by Shaw based upon a novel "Rolling Loop" film-transport technology purchased from Peter Ronald Wright Jones, a machine shop worker from Brisbane, Australia. Film projectors do not continuously flow the film in front of the bulb, but instead "stutter" the film travel so that each frame can be illuminated in a momentarily-paused still image. This requires a mechanical apparatus to buffer the jerky travel of the film strip. The older technology of running 70 mm film vertically through the projector used only five sprocket perforations on the sides of each frame; however, the IMAX method used fifteen perforations per frame. The previous mechanism was inadequate to handle this intermittent mechanical movement that was three times longer, and so Jones's invention was necessary for the novel IMAX projector method with its horizontal film feed. As it became clear that a single, large-screen image had more impact than multiple smaller ones and was a more viable product direction, Multiscreen changed its name to IMAX. Co-founder Graeme Ferguson explained how the name IMAX originated:
... the incorporation date
f the company was F, or f, is the sixth letter in the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''ef'' (pronounced ), and the plural is ''efs''. Hist ...
September 1967. ...
he name change He or HE may refer to: Language * He (pronoun), an English pronoun * He (kana), the romanization of the Japanese kana へ * He (letter), the fifth letter of many Semitic alphabets * He (Cyrillic), a letter of the Cyrillic script called ''He'' in ...
came a year or two later. We first called the company Multiscreen Corporation because that, in fact, was what people knew us as. ... After about a year, our attorney informed us that we could never copyright or trademark Multivision. It was too generic. It was a descriptive word. The words that you can copyright are words like Kleenex or Xerox or Coca-Cola. If the name is descriptive, you can't trademark it so you have to make up a word. So we were sitting at lunch one day in a Hungarian restaurant in Montreal and we worked out a name on a placemat on which we wrote all the possible names we could think of. We kept working with the idea of maximum image. We turned it around and came up with IMAX.
The name change actually happened more than two years later, because a key patent filed on January 16, 1970, was assigned under the original name Multiscreen Corporation, Limited. IMAX Chief Administration Officer Mary Ruby was quoted as saying, "Although many people may think "IMAX" is an
acronym An acronym is a word or name formed from the initial components of a longer name or phrase. Acronyms are usually formed from the initial letters of words, as in ''NATO'' (''North Atlantic Treaty Organization''), but sometimes use syllables, as ...
, it is, in fact, a made-up word."


IMAX Corporation

''
Tiger Child ''Tiger Child'' ( ja, 虎の仔 ''Tora no ko'') was the first IMAX movie ever made. It was directed by Canadian filmmaker Donald Brittain and produced by Roman Kroitor and Kichi Ichikawa. It premiered at Expo '70 in Osaka, Japan is a desi ...
'', the first IMAX film, was demonstrated at
Expo '70 The or Expo 70 was a world's fair held in Suita, Osaka Prefecture, Japan between March 15 and September 13, 1970. Its theme was "Progress and Harmony for Mankind." In Japanese, Expo '70 is often referred to as . It was the first world's fai ...
in Osaka, Japan. The first permanent IMAX installation was built at the Cinesphere theatre at Ontario Place in Toronto. It debuted in May 1971, showing the film '' North of Superior''. The installation remained in place during Ontario Place's hiatus for redevelopment. The Cinesphere was renovated while Ontario Place was closed and re-opened on November 3, 2017, with IMAX 70 mm and IMAX with laser illumination. During Expo '74 in
Spokane, Washington Spokane ( ) is the largest city and county seat of Spokane County, Washington, United States. It is in eastern Washington, along the Spokane River, adjacent to the Selkirk Mountains, and west of the Rocky Mountain foothills, south of the ...
, an IMAX screen that measured was featured in the US Pavilion (the largest structure in the expo). It became the first IMAX Theatre to not be partnered with any other brand of movie theatres. About five million visitors viewed the screen, which covered the viewer's total visual field when looking directly forward. This created a sensation of motion in most viewers, and motion sickness in some. Another IMAX 3D theatre was also built in Spokane; however, its screen size is less than half. Due to protests, the City of Spokane officials decided to work with the IMAX Corporation to demolish the theatre, under the condition they renovate the former US Pavilion itself into IMAX's first permanent ''outdoor'' giant-screen theatre. The plan was to use material on the inside of the structure similar to that used when first constructed. However, it was expected to last only five years, due to weather conditions destroying previous materials. Concept art has been released in videos featured on Spokane's renovation site, and its budget revealed that seating is planned for more than 2,000. The first permanent IMAX Dome installation, the Eugene Heikoff and Marilyn Jacobs Heikoff Dome Theatre at the Reuben H. Fleet Science Center, opened in
San Diego San Diego ( , ; ) is a city on the Pacific Ocean coast of Southern California located immediately adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a 2020 population of 1,386,932, it is the eighth most populous city in the United States ...
's Balboa Park in 1973. It doubles as a
planetarium A planetarium ( planetariums or ''planetaria'') is a Theater (structure), theatre built primarily for presenting educational entertainment, educational and entertaining shows about astronomy and the night sky, or for training in celestial navi ...
theater. The first permanent IMAX 3D theatre was built in
Vancouver Vancouver ( ) is a major city in western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the city, up from 631,486 in 2016. ...
, British Columbia, for '' Transitions'' at
Expo '86 The 1986 World Exposition on Transportation and Communication, or simply Expo 86, was a World's Fair held in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada from May 2 until October 13, 1986. The fair, the theme of which was "Transportation and Communicatio ...
, and was in use until September 30, 2009. It was located at the tip of Canada Place, a Vancouver landmark.


Digital projection

In 2008, IMAX extended its brand into traditional theaters with the introduction of Digital IMAX, a lower-cost system that uses two 2K digital projectors to project on a 1.90:1 aspect ratio screen. This lower-cost option, which allowed for the conversion of existing multiplex theater auditoriums, helped IMAX to grow from 299 screens worldwide at the end of 2007 to over 1,000 screens by the end of 2015. , there were 1,302 IMAX theatres located in 75 countries, of which 1,203 were in commercial multiplexes. The switch to digital projection came at a steep cost in image quality, with 2K projectors having roughly an order of magnitude less resolution than traditional IMAX film projectors. Maintaining the same 7-story screen size would only make this loss more noticeable, so many new theaters were instead built with significantly smaller screens. These newer theaters with much lower resolution and much smaller screens soon began to be referred to by the derogatory name "LieMAX", particularly because the company still marketed the new screens similarly to the old ones, without making the major differences clear to the public, going so far as to market the smallest "IMAX" screen, having 10 times less area, similarly to the largest while persisting with the same brand name. Since 2002, some feature films have been converted into IMAX format for displaying in IMAX theatres, and some have also been (partially) shot in IMAX. By late 2017, 1,302 IMAX theatre systems were installed in 1,203 commercial multiplexes, 13 commercial destinations, and 86 institutional settings in 75 countries, with less than a quarter of those having the capability to show 70mm film at the resolution of the large format as originally conceived.


Technical aspects


Camera


Film cameras

The IMAX cinema process increases the
image resolution Image resolution is the detail an image holds. The term applies to digital images, film images, and other types of images. "Higher resolution" means more image detail. Image resolution can be measured in various ways. Resolution quantifies how ...
by using a larger film frame; in relative terms, a frame of IMAX format film has three times the theoretical horizontal resolution of a frame of 35 mm film. To achieve such increased image resolution, which IMAX estimates at approximately 12,000 lines (6,000 line pair modulations) of horizontal resolution (12K),
65 mm film 65 may refer to: * 65 (number) * ''65'' (film), an upcoming American science fiction thriller film * One of the years 65 BC, AD 65, 1965, 2065 In contemporary history, the third millennium of the anno Domini or Common Era in the Gregorian ca ...
stock passes horizontally through the IMAX movie camera, 15 perforations at a time. At 24 frames per second, this means that the film moves through the camera at per minute (just over 6 km/h). In a conventional 65 mm camera, the film passes vertically through the camera, five perforations at a time, or per minute. In comparison, in a conventional 35 mm camera, 35 mm film passes vertically through the camera, at four (smaller) perforations at a time, which translates to per minute. In the Todd-AO 70 mm-format of widescreen cinema, the image area of a 65 mm film-frame is ; in the IMAX-format of widescreen cinema, the film-frame dimensions are . To match the standard image resolution of the moving image produced with the film-speed of 24 frames per second, an IMAX film requires three times the length of (negative) film stock required for a 65 mm film of comparable scope and cinematic technique. In March 2022, IMAX announced a new initiative in cooperation with
Kodak The Eastman Kodak Company (referred to simply as Kodak ) is an American public company that produces various products related to its historic basis in analogue photography. The company is headquartered in Rochester, New York, and is incorpor ...
, Panavision, and FotoKem to develop "a new fleet of next generation IMAX film cameras", with a goal to deploy the first four units in the next two years. Christopher Nolan and
Jordan Peele Jordan Haworth Peele (born February 21, 1979) is an American actor, comedian, and filmmaker. He is best known for his film and television work in the comedy and horror genres. Peele's breakout role came in 2003, when he was hired as a cast membe ...
are among a group of advisors, made up of filmmakers and cinematographers, assisting in identifying new specs and features for the prototype development phase.


Phantom 65 IMAX 3D digital camera

In 2011, IMAX announced a 4K 3D digital camera. The camera was developed alongside Vision Research and AbelCine, integrating two Phantom 65 engines. A prototype camera was used for the documentary '' Born to be Wild'', in which approximately 10% of the finished film was shot with the system. The company has said they have no intention of replacing the higher resolution film cameras with the new digital camera, but the latter can be used in scenes that require a lightweight or relatively small 3D camera. While IMAX has completed the production camera and has placed it in service on several films, they have no plans to produce an IMAX film solely with the new digital system. '' Transformers: Age of Extinction'' is the first feature film partially filmed with the Phantom 65 IMAX 3D camera.


ARRI Alexa IMAX digital camera

In 2015, IMAX announced a 2D digital camera that was developed alongside
Arri The Arri Group () is a German manufacturer of motion picture film equipment. Based in Munich, the company was founded in 1917. It produces professional motion picture cameras, lenses, lighting and post-production equipment. Hermann Simon ment ...
, the camera being based on the latter company's Arri Alexa 65 technology. The first production to use the camera was '' Captain America: Civil War''. The Russo brothers have stated that they solely used the Arri Alexa IMAX on '' Avengers: Infinity War'' (2018) and '' Avengers: Endgame'' (2019). For '' Transformers: The Last Knight'', two ARRI Alexa IMAX cameras were combined in a rig to provide native 3D, with the film containing 98% of IMAX footage.


Blackmagic URSA Mini Pro 12K

In 2020, Blackmagic Design announced a 12K camera that can be used for shooting large-format IMAX.


IMAX certified cameras

In September 2020, IMAX launched the "Filmed In IMAX" program, which certifies high-quality digital cameras that can be used to create IMAX-format films. As the scope of certified cameras expands, it will be easier for filmmakers to create films to meet the projection needs of the IMAX giant screen theater. None of the certified cameras in the table below yet does 12K. The Blackmagic URSA Mini Pro 12K is not in the table below because it is not yet certified. '' Top Gun: Maverick'' (shot with the Sony CineAlta Venice) and ''
Dune A dune is a landform composed of wind- or water-driven sand. It typically takes the form of a mound, ridge, or hill. An area with dunes is called a dune system or a dune complex. A large dune complex is called a dune field, while broad, f ...
'' (shot with the Arri Alexa LF and Mini LF) were among the first films that used IMAX-certified cameras. Other films between 2021 and 2023 that captured with this program are '' The Suicide Squad'' (shot with the Red Ranger Monstro and Komodo), '' Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings'' (shot with the Arri Alexa LF and Mini LF), '' The Battle at Lake Changjin'' and ''
The Battle at Lake Changjin II ''The Battle at Lake Changjin II'', also known as ''Water Gate Bridge'', is a 2022 Chinese war film and the sequel to ''The Battle at Lake Changjin'' (2021). It was directed and produced by Chen Kaige, Tsui Hark, and Dante Lam and stars Wu Jing, ...
'' (shot with the Red Ranger Monstro), '' Eternals'' (shot with the Arri Alexa LF and Mini LF), '' Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness'' (shot with Panavision Millennium DXL2), '' Thor: Love and Thunder'' (Shot with the Arri Alexa LF and Mini LF), '' Black Panther: Wakanda Forever'' (Shot with the Sony CineAlta Venice), '' The Marvels'' (Shot with the Arri Alexa LF and Mini LF) and '' Dune: Part Two'' (Shot with the Arri Alexa LF and Mini LF).


Film stock

The IMAX format is generically called "15/70" film, the name referring to the 15 sprocket holes or perforations per frame. The film's bulk and weight require horizontal platters, rather than conventional vertically mounted film reels. IMAX film is fed through the projector horizontally, and the film is drawn from the inner circumference of the platter, not from the outer circumference like in conventional film reels. A system is in place to keep the film in the outer circumference from flying outwards due to centrifugal force while the platter is spinning. IMAX film is shipped to theaters in several small reels that are spliced into one continuous length that is then wound into a platter, a process that may take hours to complete. Films may be several kilometers in length: ''Avatar'', which was 2:45 hours in duration, was close to long. Platters are handled using special forklifts. IMAX platters range from diameter to accommodate 1 to 2.75 hours of film. Platters with a 2.5 hour feature film weigh . IMAX uses ESTAR-based print film in their 15/70 rolling-loop film projection systems. ESTAR-based print film provides greater precision. The chemical development process does not change the size or shape of ESTAR print film, and IMAX's pin registration system (''especially that of the camera mechanism'') does not tolerate either
sprocket A sprocket, sprocket-wheel or chainwheel is a profiled wheel with teeth that mesh with a chain, track or other perforated or indented material. The name 'sprocket' applies generally to any wheel upon which radial projections engage a chain pas ...
-hole or film-thickness variations, but the film can still swell or shrink under varying temperature and humidity. This requires projection booths to be kept at a temperature of between 20 and 23.8 °C and a humidity of 50%. The film is too large to be moved using its sprockets, so they are instead used for registration, to aid in aligning the film. A feature film platter can cost to print. The camera negative is actually 65 mm film stock, but it runs horizontally and with 15 perforations per frame. The camera, like the projector, has a vacuum system; this makes the camera noisy, forbidding the recording of quiet scenes. The camera has enough film for three minutes of shooting. The large frame of the film also imposes optical limitations such as an extremely shallow
depth of field The depth of field (DOF) is the distance between the nearest and the furthest objects that are in acceptably sharp focus in an image captured with a camera. Factors affecting depth of field For cameras that can only focus on one object dis ...
when shooting with an open aperture.


Soundtrack – double-system

To use more of the image area, IMAX film does not include an embedded soundtrack. Instead, the IMAX system specifies a separate six-channel magnetic film, recorded and played back on a film follower locked to picture, just as
Vitaphone Vitaphone was a sound film system used for feature films and nearly 1,000 short subjects made by Warner Bros. and its sister studio First National from 1926 to 1931. Vitaphone was the last major analog sound-on-disc system and the only one ...
had been (utilizing 16-inch 33 1/3 RPM electrical transcription discs) in the early 20th century, and was the same technology used to provide the 7-channel soundtrack accompanying films photographed and exhibited in the Cinerama process in the mid-1950s. By the early 1990s, a separate DTS-based 6-track digital sound system was used, similarly locked to the projector by a SMPTE time code synchronization apparatus, the audio played off a series of proprietarily encoded
CD-ROM A CD-ROM (, compact disc read-only memory) is a type of read-only memory consisting of a pre-pressed optical compact disc that contains data. Computers can read—but not write or erase—CD-ROMs. Some CDs, called enhanced CDs, hold both com ...
discs. In the late 1990s, IMAX upgraded this system to use a
hard drive A hard disk drive (HDD), hard disk, hard drive, or fixed disk is an electro-mechanical data storage device that stores and retrieves digital data using magnetic storage with one or more rigid rapidly rotating platters coated with mag ...
that carries a single uncompressed
audio Audio most commonly refers to sound, as it is transmitted in signal form. It may also refer to: Sound *Audio signal, an electrical representation of sound *Audio frequency, a frequency in the audio spectrum * Digital audio, representation of sou ...
file that contains the six channels. These are converted directly to analogue rather than processed through a decoding method such as DTS. Like conventional theatres, IMAX theatres place speakers both directly behind the acoustically transparent screen, and around the theatre to create a "surround sound" effect. IMAX also provides a "top center" speaker in addition to the centre speaker found in conventional theatres. This extra channel allows the sound mix engineers to take advantage of the screen's greater height.


Projectors

Transporting the large film stock through the optical system presented challenges for both the camera and the projector. Conventional 70 mm systems were not steady enough for the 586× magnification. On the projector side, William Shaw adapted an Australian patent (no. 291,375) for film transport called the "rolling loop" by adding a
compressed air Compressed air is air kept under a pressure that is greater than atmospheric pressure. Compressed air is an important medium for transfer of energy in industrial processes, and is used for power tools such as air hammers, drills, wrenches, an ...
"puffer" to accelerate the film, and put a cylindrical lens in the projector's "aperture block". The rolling loop mechanism is used to move the film in projectors and cameras; the sprockets in the film are only used for registration as the film is too large to be moved with sprockets at the necessary speeds for projection and filming without damage. The projector uses a
vacuum A vacuum is a space devoid of matter. The word is derived from the Latin adjective ''vacuus'' for "vacant" or " void". An approximation to such vacuum is a region with a gaseous pressure much less than atmospheric pressure. Physicists often ...
to pull the film into contact with this lens. Thus the " field flattener" flattens the image field. The lens is twice the height of the film and connects to a
pneumatic Pneumatics (from Greek ‘wind, breath’) is a branch of engineering that makes use of gas or pressurized air. Pneumatic systems used in industry are commonly powered by compressed air or compressed inert gases. A centrally located and ...
piston A piston is a component of reciprocating engines, reciprocating pumps, gas compressors, hydraulic cylinders and pneumatic cylinders, among other similar mechanisms. It is the moving component that is contained by a cylinder and is made gas-t ...
so it can be moved up or down while the projector is running. This way, if a piece of dust comes off the film and sticks to the lens, the projectionist can switch to a clean portion of the lens at the push of a button. The lens also has "wiper bars" made of a
felt Felt is a textile material that is produced by matting, condensing and pressing fibers together. Felt can be made of natural fibers such as wool or animal fur, or from synthetic fibers such as petroleum-based acrylic or acrylonitrile or wood ...
or brush-like material that wipes dust off the lens as it moves up or down. The projector uses a vacuum to keep the film flat and oriented correctly for projection. The shutter of an IMAX projector is also kept open for longer than a 35 mm projector shutter to increase image brightness. IMAX projectors are pin-stabilized; this means that four registration pins engage the perforations at the corners of the projected frame to ensure perfect alignment. Shaw added cam-controlled arms to decelerate each frame to eliminate the microscopic shaking as the frame "settled" onto the registration pins. The projector's shutter is open around 20% longer than in conventional equipment, and the light source is brighter. The xenon short-arc lamps are made with a thin envelope of fused quartz and contain
xenon Xenon is a chemical element with the symbol Xe and atomic number 54. It is a dense, colorless, odorless noble gas found in Earth's atmosphere in trace amounts. Although generally unreactive, it can undergo a few chemical reactions such as the ...
gas at a pressure of about 25
atmospheres The standard atmosphere (symbol: atm) is a unit of pressure defined as Pa. It is sometimes used as a ''reference pressure'' or ''standard pressure''. It is approximately equal to Earth's average atmospheric pressure at sea level. History The s ...
(). Because of this, projectionists are required to wear protective
body armor Body armor, also known as body armour, personal armor or armour, or a suit or coat of armor, is protective clothing designed to absorb or deflect physical attacks. Historically used to protect military personnel, today it is also used by variou ...
when changing or handling the lamp in case it breaks (e.g., due to a drop to the floor) because of the danger from flying quartz shards propelled by the high pressure of the xenon gas within; this applies to all projection xenon lamps. An IMAX xenon lamp runs on DC power, lasts for 1,000 hours and requires its own pump and water cooler. The projector's optics also require compressed air cooling. An IMAX projector weighs up to 1.8 tonnes (2 short tons) and is over tall and long. The projector is raised and locked into position before each screening. IMAX Corporation has released four projector types that use its 15-perforation,
70 mm film 70 mm film (or 65 mm film) is a wide high-resolution film gauge for motion picture photography, with a negative area nearly 3.5 times as large as the standard 35 mm motion picture film format. As used in cameras, the film is wid ...
format: GT (Grand Theatre), GT 3D (dual rotor), SR (Small Rotor), and MPX, which was designed for retrofitted theatres. In July 2008, the company introduced a digital projection system, which it has not given a distinct name or brand, designed for multiplex theatres with screens no wider than . All IMAX projectors, except the standard GT system, can project 3D images. GT 3D projectors require two separate lamps and polarized projection optics.


Digital projection

The digital cinema IMAX projection system, debuted in 2008, is designed for use with shorter 1.89:1 aspect ratio screens. The system uses two 2K projectors that can present either 2D or 3D content in
DCI DCI may be an abbreviation for: Technology * D-chiro-inositol, an isomer of inositol * Data, context and interaction, an architectural pattern in computer software development * Direct Count & Intersect, an algorithm for discovering frequent se ...
or IMAX Digital Format (IDF; which in itself is a superset of DCI). IDF initially used 2K-resolution Christie xenon projectors, with a
Texas Instruments Texas Instruments Incorporated (TI) is an American technology company headquartered in Dallas, Texas, that designs and manufactures semiconductors and various integrated circuits, which it sells to electronics designers and manufacturers globa ...
Digital Light Processing (DLP) engine, but in 2012 IMAX announced that they would be switching to Barco as their primary supplier. The two 2K images are projected superimposed on each other with a half-pixel offset, using
super-resolution imaging Super-resolution imaging (SR) is a class of techniques that enhance (increase) the resolution of an imaging system. In optical SR the diffraction limit of systems is transcended, while in geometrical SR the resolution of digital imaging sensors ...
to increase the perceived resolution to approximately 2.9K. For 3D presentations, one projector is used to display the image for each eye, while 2D presentations use the superimposed images to allow for a brighter 22- foot lambert image. The Digital IMAX projection system includes a proprietary IMAX Image Enhancer that modifies the output of the digital media server based on feedback from cameras and microphones in the auditorium, and maintains alignment with sub-pixel accuracy. Mainly because the system facilitates inexpensive distribution of IMAX features, the company announced in February 2012 that they were re-renovating specially selected locations around the world to present both 70 mm analog as well as digital presentations. To do so, IMAX developed a rail system that moves the projectors in and out to accommodate either a full-frame film print or a digital-only release. These theaters were prepared in time for the release of '' The Dark Knight Rises'' in July 2012.


Laser projection

In April 2012, IMAX began testing a new 4K laser projection system, based on patents licensed from
Eastman Kodak The Eastman Kodak Company (referred to simply as Kodak ) is an American public company that produces various products related to its historic basis in analogue photography. The company is headquartered in Rochester, New York, and is incorpor ...
. Like the 3D film and digital systems, it used two projectors, but it improved over the smaller digital screens by retaining the traditional IMAX aspect ratio and let films be shown on screens wide or more. In December 2014, IMAX began rolling out its new Dual 4K laser projector system, dubbed "IMAX with Laser", with the first installation occurring at the Cineplex ScotiaBank Theatre in
Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the anch ...
. The system allows digital projection on the full 1.43:1 aspect ratio surface of a traditional IMAX screen, but can also be used on wider screens such as the 1.89:1-aspect-ratio
TCL Chinese Theater Grauman's Chinese Theatre (branded as TCL Chinese Theatre for naming rights reasons) is a movie palace on the historic Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6925 Hollywood Boulevard in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, United States. The original Chi ...
. The system replaces the
xenon arc lamp A xenon arc lamp is a highly specialized type of gas discharge lamp, an electric light that produces light by passing electricity through ionized xenon gas at high pressure. It produces a bright white light to simulate sunlight, with applications ...
of a traditional digital projector with a laser light source, and is capable of 60 fps with "50 percent greater" brightness than the Digital Cinema Initiatives spec, a contrast ratio "double" that of IMAX 15/70 mm film projection and "higher" than the 2,500:1 contrast ratio of IMAX's xenon lamp-based projection systems, and displaying the full
Rec. 2020 ITU-R Recommendation BT.2020, more commonly known by the abbreviations Rec. 2020 or BT.2020, defines various aspects of ultra-high-definition television (UHDTV) with standard dynamic range (SDR) and wide color gamut (WCG), including picture ...
color gamut/space. The system also features a new 12-channel surround sound system, which adds an additional speaker on either side of the theater as well as four new overhead speakers. While still not matching the theoretical resolution of traditional IMAX film, which is estimated at up to 12,000 lines of horizontal resolution on the 65 mm camera negative (12K) and approximately 6,000 on a 35 mm release print (6K), the new laser system features dual-
4K resolution 4K resolution refers to a horizontal display resolution of approximately 4,000 pixels. Digital television and digital cinematography commonly use several different 4K resolutions. In television and consumer media, 38402160 (4K UHD) is the domi ...
projectors, each capable of displaying four times the detail of one Digital IMAX projector. Like Digital IMAX, images from the two projectors are projected superimposed on each other with a half-pixel offset, using
super-resolution imaging Super-resolution imaging (SR) is a class of techniques that enhance (increase) the resolution of an imaging system. In optical SR the diffraction limit of systems is transcended, while in geometrical SR the resolution of digital imaging sensors ...
, which makes the perceived resolution greater than 4K. In-theater cameras and microphones are used to automatically calibrate the projectors and sound system between showings. For 3D presentations, one projector is used to display the image for each eye, while 2D presentations use the superimposed images to allow for a brighter image. For 3D presentations, IMAX with Laser systems use
dichroic filter A dichroic filter, thin-film filter, or interference filter is a color filter used to selectively pass light of a small range of colors while reflecting other colors. By comparison, dichroic mirrors and dichroic reflectors tend to be character ...
glasses, similar to those used by
Dolby 3D Dolby 3D (formerly known as Dolby 3D Digital Cinema) is a marketing name for a system from Dolby Laboratories, Inc. to show three-dimensional motion pictures in a digital cinema. Technology Dolby 3D uses a Dolby Digital Cinema projector that ...
, as opposed to the linear polarization glasses used in Digital IMAX theaters. On April 24, 2018, IMAX announced that they would begin rolling out a new single-unit version of their laser projector system later that year, with this iteration designed to replace the IMAX Xenon digital projection system for 1.89:1 screens.


Theatres

IMAX theatres are described as either "Classic Design" (purpose-built structures), or "Multiplex Design" (retrofitted auditoriums). Classic IMAX theatre construction differs significantly from conventional theatres. The increased resolution lets the audience be much closer to the screen. Typically all rows are within one screen height – conventional theatre seating runs 8 to 12-screen heights. Also, the rows of seats are set at a steep angle (up to 30° in some domed theatres) so that the audience is facing the screen directly. The world's largest IMAX screen currently stands in Leonberg near
Stuttgart Stuttgart (; Swabian: ; ) is the capital and largest city of the German state of Baden-Württemberg. It is located on the Neckar river in a fertile valley known as the ''Stuttgarter Kessel'' (Stuttgart Cauldron) and lies an hour from the Sw ...
,
Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwee ...
and measures . Until 2021, the largest operating IMAX screen was located within the Melbourne Museum in
Melbourne Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/ Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a metro ...
,
Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands. With an area of , Australia is the largest country by ...
, measuring . Until 2016, the world's largest IMAX screen had been in
Darling Harbour Darling Harbour is a harbour adjacent to the city centre of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia that is made up of a large recreational and pedestrian precinct that is situated on western outskirts of the Sydney central business district. Origin ...
,
Sydney Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mounta ...
,
Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands. With an area of , Australia is the largest country by ...
, measuring , until it was closed for reconstruction. Once completed, the new Sydney IMAX will include an even larger screen ensuring it retains the record as the world's largest 1.43:1 IMAX screen.


Variations


Dome and Omnimax

In the late-1960s, the San Diego Hall of Science (now known as the Reuben H. Fleet Science Center) began searching North America for a large-format film system to project on the dome of their planned tilted
dome A dome () is an architectural element similar to the hollow upper half of a sphere. There is significant overlap with the term cupola, which may also refer to a dome or a structure on top of a dome. The precise definition of a dome has been a m ...
planetarium A planetarium ( planetariums or ''planetaria'') is a Theater (structure), theatre built primarily for presenting educational entertainment, educational and entertaining shows about astronomy and the night sky, or for training in celestial navi ...
. The standard IMAX projector was unsuitable for use inside a dome because it had a tall lamp house on top. IMAX Corporation redesigned its system, adding an
elevator An elevator or lift is a cable-assisted, hydraulic cylinder-assisted, or roller-track assisted machine that vertically transports people or freight between floors, levels, or decks of a building, vessel, or other structure. They ...
to lift the projector to the center of the dome from the projection booth below. Spectra Physics designed a suitable lamphouse that took smaller, lamps and placed the bulb behind the lens instead of above the projector. In 1970, Ernst Leitz Canada, Ltd. (now
ELCAN Optical Technologies Raytheon ELCAN Optical Technologies, also simply ELCAN ( Ernest Leitz CANada),
) won a contract to develop and manufacture a fisheye lens projection system optimized to project an image onto a dome instead of a flat screen. The dome system, which the San Diego Hall of Science called "Omnimax", uses films shot with a camera equipped with a fisheye lens that squeezes a highly distorted anamorphic 180° field of view onto the 65 mm IMAX film. The lens is aligned below the center of the frame, and most of the bottom half of the circular field falls beyond the edge of the film. The part of the field that would fall below the edge of the dome is masked. When filming, the camera is aimed upward at an angle that matches the tilt of the dome. When projected through a matching fisheye lens onto a dome, the original panoramic view is recreated. Omnimax wraps 180° horizontally, 100° above the horizon and 22° below the horizon for a viewer at the center of the dome. Omnimax premiered in 1973, showing ''
Voyage to the Outer Planets ''Voyage to the Outer Planets'' was an early multimedia experiment, first presented in 1973, combining Omnimax film, 70 mm film and planetarium special effects. The special effects and stills on standard and zoom equipped slide projectors were pro ...
'' (produced by Graphic Films) and '' Garden Isle'' (by Roger Tilton Films) on a double bill. IMAX has since renamed the system "IMAX Dome", but some theaters (primarily those opened before the 2000s) continue to call it "Omnimax". IMAX Dome theatres are used in theme parks and many North American museums, particularly those with a scientific focus, where the technical aspects of the system may be highlighted as part of the attraction. The projection room is often windowed to allow public viewing of the equipment in operation, and it is often accompanied by informational placards like other exhibits. For some theaters, before the show begins, the screen can be backlit to show the speakers and girders behind it. The screen may be a permanent fixture, such as at the Museum of Science and Industry ( Henry Crown Space Center) in Chicago, Illinois; the
Fort Worth Museum of Science and History The Fort Worth Museum of Science and History is located on 1600 Gendy Street, Fort Worth, Texas 76107 in the city's Cultural District. It was opened in 1945 as the Fort Worth Children's Museum and moved to its current location in 1954. In 1968, t ...
; the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; the St. Louis Science Center; Boston's Museum of Science; Richmond's Science Museum of Virginia; the Charlotte Observer IMAX Dome Theatre at Discovery Place, Charlotte, North Carolina; Birmingham, Alabama's McWane Science Center; US Space and Rocket Center in Huntsville, Alabama; the Cincinnati Museum Center at Union Terminal and Great Lakes Science Center in Cleveland, Ohio, and the
Ontario Science Centre The Ontario Science Centre, formally the Centennial Museum of Science and Technology, is a science museum in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is located near the Don Valley Parkway about northeast of downtown on Don Mills Road just south of ...
in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Alternatively, the dome may be lowered and raised as needed, such as at the Science Museum of Minnesota, and the former installation at the
Canadian Museum of History The Canadian Museum of History (french: Musée canadien de l’histoire) is a national museum on anthropology, Canadian history, cultural studies, and ethnology in Gatineau, Quebec, Canada. The purpose of the museum is to promote the heritage ...
(where it shared an auditorium with a standard IMAX screen, all replaced with a Barco CINE+ digital theatre system in 2016). The entire dome could be raised to show flat-screen features, and repositioned for immersive features. While the majority of museum installations focus on educational and documentary films, on special occasions entertainment films are also shown, such as '' Charlie and the Chocolate Factory'' at the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry. The largest screen in North America is at the Science World in Vancouver, British Columbia, which has a dome screen in size. Due to the age of the IMAX Dome format as well as its entirely analogue nature, some theatres may opt to replace their existing IMAX Dome systems with newer, more versatile digital systems. Examples of former IMAX Dome theatres that have had their IMAX equipment replaced with newer equipment include Tietomaa Science Centre in
Oulu Oulu ( , ; sv, Uleåborg ) is a city, municipality and a seaside resort of about 210,000 inhabitants in the region of North Ostrobothnia, Finland. It is the most populous city in northern Finland and the fifth most populous in the country after ...
,
Finland Finland ( fi, Suomi ; sv, Finland ), officially the Republic of Finland (; ), is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It shares land borders with Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of Bot ...
(which replaced its IMAX 8/70 equipment from 1988 with a Barco DP4K-32B 4K projection system in 2013), the Omni-Theatre at
Science Centre Singapore The Science Centre Singapore, previously known as Singapore Science Centre is a scientific institution in Jurong East, Singapore, specialising in the promotion of scientific and technological education for the general public. It houses over 85 ...
, the
National Museum of Natural Science The National Museum of Natural Science () is a national museum in North District, Taichung, Taiwan. Overview The museum covers and is a six-venue complex housing: the Space Theater, Science Center, Life Science Hall, Human Cultures Hall, ...
in
Taichung Taichung (, Wade–Giles: ''Tʻai²-chung¹'', pinyin: ''Táizhōng''), officially Taichung City, is a special municipality located in central Taiwan. Taichung has approximately 2.8 million residents and is the second most populous city of T ...
,
Taiwan Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the no ...
(which both had their original IMAX Dome 1570 projection systems installed respectively in 1987 and 1985 replaced with Evans & Sutherland Digistar 5 8K digital systems in 2015), and the Jennifer Chalsty Planetarium at Liberty Science Center in Jersey City,
New Jersey New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York; on the east, southeast, and south by the Atlantic Ocean; on the west by the Delawa ...
, which replaced its IMAX Dome 1570 projection system from 1993 (when built was the largest IMAX Dome/OMNIMAX theatre in the world) with an Evans & Sutherland Digistar 6 "True8K" digital system in 2017. In November 2018, the Hackworth IMAX dome in The Tech Museum (now The Tech Interactive) replaced its 70 mm IMAX projector with a 4K IMAX Laser projector. It became the first digital IMAX Laser dome theater in the world.


3D

To create the illusion of depth, the IMAX 3D process uses two separate camera lenses that represent the left and right eyes. The lenses are separated by a distance of , the average distance between a human's eyes. Two separate rolls of film are used to capture the images they produce. The IMAX 3D camera weighs over . By projecting the two films superimposed on the screen and using one of several available methods to direct only the correct image to each eye, viewers see a 3D image on a 2D screen. One method is to use polarizing filters to oppositely polarize the light used in projecting each image. The viewer wears glasses with polarizing filters oriented to match the projector filters, so that the filter over each eye blocks the light used to project the images intended for the other eye. In another method, the two projections rapidly alternate. While one image is being shown, the projection of its mate is blocked. Each frame is shown more than once to increase the rate and suppress flicker. The viewer wears shutter glasses with liquid crystal shutters that block or transmit light in sync with the projectors, so each eye sees only the images meant for it. Several of the early films that had been produced in digital 3D for release in conventional theaters were also presented in IMAX 3D, including ''
Avatar Avatar (, ; ), is a concept within Hinduism that in Sanskrit literally means "descent". It signifies the material appearance or incarnation of a powerful deity, goddess or spirit on Earth. The relative verb to "alight, to make one's appear ...
'', ''
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'' and ''
The Amazing Spider-Man ''The Amazing Spider-Man'' is an ongoing American comic book series featuring the Marvel Comics superhero Spider-Man as its main protagonist. Being in the mainstream continuity of the franchise, it began publication in 1963 as a bimonthly per ...
''. The first full-color IMAX 3D film was the 1986 short documentary '' Transitions'', produced for
Expo 86 The 1986 World Exposition on Transportation and Communication, or simply Expo 86, was a World's Fair held in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada from May 2 until October 13, 1986. The fair, the theme of which was "Transportation and Communicat ...
in Vancouver.


HD

Variations on IMAX included the 48 frames per second IMAX HD process, which sought to produce smoother, more lifelike motion, while also reducing the blurring of moving objects, by doubling the normal film rate. The IMAX HD system was tested in 1992 at the Canada Pavilion of the Seville Expo '92 with the film ''
Momentum In Newtonian mechanics, momentum (more specifically linear momentum or translational momentum) is the product of the mass and velocity of an object. It is a vector quantity, possessing a magnitude and a direction. If is an object's mass ...
''. Higher production costs, and the high "wear-and-tear" on the prints and projectors, doomed the IMAX HD system, but, not before many theatres had been retrofitted to project at 48 frames, especially in Canada, in order to play ''Momentum''. In the 1990s theme parks in Thailand, Germany, and Las Vegas used IMAX HD for their Motion Simulator rides. The Disney parks attraction Soarin' Over California features a modification of both IMAX HD and IMAX Dome, projecting in 48 frames per second.


Digital

Because 70 mm film and projectors are costly, difficult to produce en masse, and the size of auditoriums that house full-size IMAX screens make them expensive to construct, IMAX debuted a digital projection system in 2008 to use with shorter 1.89:1 aspect ratio screens. It uses two 2K-resolution projectors that can present either 2D or 3D content in
DCI DCI may be an abbreviation for: Technology * D-chiro-inositol, an isomer of inositol * Data, context and interaction, an architectural pattern in computer software development * Direct Count & Intersect, an algorithm for discovering frequent se ...
or IMAX Digital Format (IDF; which in itself is a superset of DCI). The digital installations have caused some controversy, as many theaters have branded their screens as IMAX after merely retrofitting standard auditoriums with IMAX digital projectors. The screen sizes in these auditoriums are much smaller than those in the purpose-built auditoriums of the original 15/70 IMAX format, and are limited to the 1.89:1 aspect ratio. Another disadvantage is the much lower resolution of digital IMAX. The technology has a maximum perceived resolution of 2.9K, compared to traditional IMAX 70 mm projection, which has an estimated resolution of 12K. Some reviewers have also noted that many non-IMAX theaters are projecting films at
4K resolution 4K resolution refers to a horizontal display resolution of approximately 4,000 pixels. Digital television and digital cinematography commonly use several different 4K resolutions. In television and consumer media, 38402160 (4K UHD) is the domi ...
through competing brands such as
Dolby Cinema Dolby Cinema is a premium cinema created by Dolby Laboratories that combines Dolby proprietary technologies such as Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos, as well as other signature entrance and intrinsic design features. The technology competes with ...
and UltraAVX. IMAX has held to a uniform branding of "The IMAX Experience" across various underlying technologies and screen sizes.Hyder, James (October 16, 2008). ''Is IMAX the next "New Coke"?'' LF Examiner, October 16, 2008. Retrieved fro
LFexaminer.com.
Some have criticized the company's marketing approach, with the format being dubbed "Lie-MAX". The company has defended the format by saying it has a bigger screen, brighter picture and better sound than standard theatres. Despite the differences with digital IMAX, the cost-effective format has aided in the company's worldwide growth, especially in Russia and China.


IMAXShift

In May 2016, IMAX announced the test launch of IMAXShift, a multimedia indoor cycling concept, but decided to discontinue it June 4, 2017.


Virtual reality

On September 2, 2016, IMAX announced plans to include
virtual reality Virtual reality (VR) is a simulated experience that employs pose tracking and 3D near-eye displays to give the user an immersive feel of a virtual world. Applications of virtual reality include entertainment (particularly video games), edu ...
(VR) into the IMAX theater experience with the opening of a new VR center in Los Angeles that would use a new StarVR headset created by Acer. The VR experience was intended for short but interactive videos. IMAX opened a total of seven IMAX VR centers and established a fund for the creation of VR content, as well as partnering with
Google Google LLC () is an American Multinational corporation, multinational technology company focusing on Search Engine, search engine technology, online advertising, cloud computing, software, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, ar ...
for the production of IMAX VR cameras. However, , all seven IMAX VR centers have closed.


Films


Entertainment

In the US, IMAX has mostly been used for specialty applications. The expense and logistical challenges of producing and presenting IMAX films have led to approximately 40 minutes shorter running times than conventional films. Most are documentaries suited for institutional venues such as museums and science centers. IMAX cameras have been used while orbiting the Earth, climbing
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, exploring the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean, and visiting the
Antarctic The Antarctic ( or , American English also or ; commonly ) is a polar region around Earth's South Pole, opposite the Arctic region around the North Pole. The Antarctic comprises the continent of Antarctica, the Kerguelen Plateau and othe ...
. A film about the Mars Exploration Rovers, titled '' Roving Mars'' (2006), used exclusive data from the rovers. An early attempt at presenting mainstream entertainment in IMAX format was '' The Rolling Stones: Live at the Max'' (1991), an 85-minute compilation of concert footage filmed in IMAX during the rock band's 1990 Steel Wheels tour, edited to give the impression of a single concert. In the 1990s, more entertainment short films were created, notably '' T-Rex: Back to the Cretaceous'' in 1998, and '' Haunted Castle'' in 2001 (both in 3D). In 1995, French director Jean-Jacques Annaud directed ''
Wings of Courage ''Wings of Courage'' is a 1995 American-French drama film directed by Jean-Jacques Annaud and starring Craig Sheffer, Val Kilmer, Elizabeth McGovern and Tom Hulce. The 40-minute film was written by Annaud with Alain Godard. It was the first dramat ...
'', the first dramatic picture shot for IMAX. In 1998 and 1999, ''
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'' and '' The Old Man and the Sea'' became the first short films produced using the IMAX format; both earned Academy Award nominations, with ''Old Man and the Sea'' becoming the only IMAX film to win an Oscar. In 2000,
Disney The Walt Disney Company, commonly known as Disney (), is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios complex in Burbank, California. Disney was originally founded on October ...
produced '' Fantasia 2000'', the first full-length animated feature initially released exclusively in the IMAX format.


Use in Hollywood productions

Before the end of the 1990s, theatrical features were deemed impossible to run in IMAX venues at the time, as there was a technical limitation on the size of the film reel where films had to run around two hours. Originally, IMAX and Pixar considered releasing '' Toy Story'' in IMAX 3D, but test results showed that the render resolution could not match the size of the IMAX image. DreamWorks in the early 2000s wanted to re-release '' Shrek'' in IMAX 3D, but this too was canceled as a result of creative changes in the studio. These failed attempts at re-releases did inspire IMAX to experiment and improve their ability in presenting computer animation in their theaters. Their compilation '' CyberWorld'' was the result, which contained new original animation and IMAX-presented versions of computer animated tests and music videos. ''Cyberworld'' even presented open-matte 3D versions of the bar sequence from '' Antz'' and the "
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" segment from ''
The Simpsons ''The Simpsons'' is an American animated sitcom created by Matt Groening for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series is a satirical depiction of American life, epitomized by the Simpson family, which consists of Homer, Marge, Bart, ...
''; both coincidentally were animated at Pacific Data Images.
Walt Disney Pictures Walt Disney Pictures is an American film production company and subsidiary of Walt Disney Studios, which is owned by The Walt Disney Company. The studio is the flagship producer of live-action feature films within the Walt Disney Studios unit ...
became the first studio to release theatrical films in the IMAX process. Released on New Year's Day in 2000, '' Fantasia 2000'' was the studio's first IMAX release and the first theatrical feature presented in IMAX theaters. It was originally planned as a standard theatrical release, but in agreeing with the company to release the film, the IMAX sound system incorporated a multi-channel and multi-layer stereo system for the orchestrated soundtrack, similar to the Fantasound system Walt Disney had envisioned for the original film in 1940. The company agreed to Disney's terms and conditions to gain the exclusive first showings of the film. These included a limited engagement of four months (from January 1 to April 30) and 50% of the box office receipts. Not all IMAX cinemas were prepared to accept Disney's terms to present the film; however, following the IMAX release, a standard 35 mm run followed in June at regular theaters. Although ''Fantasia 2000'' had a lukewarm financial run, the critical praise for its use of the IMAX format convinced Disney to put more releases in the giant-screen format in the pipeline. In 2002, IMAX re-issues of '' Beauty and the Beast'' and ''
The Lion King ''The Lion King'' is a 1994 American animated musical drama film produced by Walt Disney Feature Animation and released by Walt Disney Pictures. The 32nd Disney animated feature film and the fifth produced during the Disney Renaissance ...
'' were released in select theaters over the winter and Christmas seasons of that year. New digital masters were created from the original CAPS production files and select scenes of animation were cleaned up to make use of the high resolution IMAX film negatives. '' Treasure Planet'' was also released in select IMAX theaters and was the first theatrical film released in regular and IMAX theaters simultaneously. But all of these releases had underwhelming box office returns and Disney canceled later big-screen re-releases, including ''
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''. With the unveiling of the DMR process (see below),
Warner Bros. Pictures Warner Bros. Pictures is an American film production and distribution company of the Warner Bros. Pictures Group division of Warner Bros. Entertainment (both ultimately owned by Warner Bros. Discovery). The studio is the flagship producer of li ...
especially embraced the format beginning in 2003 with the two ''
Matrix Matrix most commonly refers to: * ''The Matrix'' (franchise), an American media franchise ** '' The Matrix'', a 1999 science-fiction action film ** "The Matrix", a fictional setting, a virtual reality environment, within ''The Matrix'' (franchi ...
'' sequels, '' Reloaded'' and '' Revolutions''. Since '' The Prisoner of Azkaban'' in 2004, Warner Bros. began releasing the ''Harry Potter'' film franchise in IMAX to strong financial success. Also in 2004 the studio released
Robert Zemeckis Robert Lee Zemeckis (born May 14, 1952) is an American filmmaker. He first came to public attention as the director of the action-adventure romantic comedy '' Romancing the Stone'' (1984), the science-fiction comedy '' Back to the Future'' film ...
' motion-capture film '' The Polar Express'' in IMAX 3D. ''Polar Express'' became the most successful film released in IMAX theaters, producing at least a quarter of the film's gross of $302 million from fewer than 100 IMAX screens. Success for Warner Bros. and IMAX followed in later years with '' I Am Legend'', '' Happy Feet'', '' Batman Begins'' and '' The Dark Knight''. Progressively other studios became further interested in releasing films in IMAX through the DMR process and have earned success through it. In May 2009, J. J. Abrams's ''
Star Trek ''Star Trek'' is an American science fiction media franchise created by Gene Roddenberry, which began with the eponymous 1960s television series and quickly became a worldwide pop-culture phenomenon. The franchise has expanded into vari ...
'' was released in IMAX venues for the initial two weeks of its theatrical run and opened to $8.3 million. The IMAX opening weekends of '' The Avengers'' and '' Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2'' have since grossed $15 million. Though they were not filmed with IMAX cameras, '' Skyfall'' and ''
The Amazing Spider-Man ''The Amazing Spider-Man'' is an ongoing American comic book series featuring the Marvel Comics superhero Spider-Man as its main protagonist. Being in the mainstream continuity of the franchise, it began publication in 1963 as a bimonthly per ...
'' were optimized for IMAX digital screens when they were released. Both movies were filmed in high-resolution cameras and the digital negative ratio was equal to that of the IMAX Digital frame. ''Skyfall'' increased the visual information of the entire film while ''Amazing Spider-Man'' optimized the finale battle with the Lizard. When
James Cameron James Francis Cameron (born August 16, 1954) is a Canadian filmmaker. A major figure in the post- New Hollywood era, he is considered one of the industry's most innovative filmmakers, regularly pushing the boundaries of cinematic capability ...
's ''
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'' was restored and re-released in theaters there was also specially made an open-matte version for IMAX. In 2010 after years of successful IMAX DMR releases, Warner Bros. signed a deal to release up to 20 feature films in IMAX up to 2013, including educational documentaries that were in production. In May 2015,
Marvel Studios Marvel Studios, LLC (originally known as Marvel Films from 1993 to 1996) is an American film and television production company that is a subsidiary of Walt Disney Studios, a division of the Walt Disney Company. Marvel Studios produces the Ma ...
announced that its next two ''Avengers'' films – '' Avengers: Infinity War'' (2018) and '' Avengers: Endgame'' (2019) – would be filmed entirely in IMAX, the first Hollywood feature films to do so, using a modified version of
Arri The Arri Group () is a German manufacturer of motion picture film equipment. Based in Munich, the company was founded in 1917. It produces professional motion picture cameras, lenses, lighting and post-production equipment. Hermann Simon ment ...
's Alexa 65 digital camera. The camera was used first to film select sequences in another Marvel production, 2016's '' Captain America: Civil War''.


DMR (Digital Media Remastering)

IMAX's proprietary DMR (Digital Media Remastering) process up-converts conventional films to IMAX format. This special
digital intermediate Digital intermediate (typically abbreviated DI) is a motion picture finishing process which classically involves digitizing a motion picture and manipulating the color and other image characteristics. Definition and overview A digital intermediat ...
technology let IMAX venues show films shot on 35mm for conventional theaters. In 2002, '' Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones'' and an IMAX-format re-release of the 1995 film ''
Apollo 13 Apollo 13 (April 1117, 1970) was the seventh crewed mission in the Apollo space program and the third meant to land on the Moon. The craft was launched from Kennedy Space Center on April 11, 1970, but the lunar landing was aborted aft ...
'', were the first official applications of the DMR process. Because of projection limitations at the time, the studios had to edit ''Apollo 13'' and ''Attack of the Clones'' to have a shorter playing time. As IMAX updated the system and expanded the size of the platters, the later DMR releases did not have this limitation; current platters provide a run time of up to 175 minutes. Reviewers have generally praised the results of the DMR blowup process, which are visually and audibly superior to the same films projected in 35mm. But some filmmakers, such as producer Frank Marshall, point out that DMR blowups are not comparable to films created directly in the 70 mm 15 perf IMAX format, and that directors
Ron Howard Ronald William Howard (born March 1, 1954) is an American director, producer, screenwriter, and actor. He first came to prominence as a child actor, guest-starring in several television series, including an episode of '' The Twilight Zone''. ...
and
George Lucas George Walton Lucas Jr. (born May 14, 1944) is an American filmmaker. Lucas is best known for creating the '' Star Wars'' and '' Indiana Jones'' franchises and founding Lucasfilm, LucasArts, Industrial Light & Magic and THX. He served as c ...
expected better. They note that the decline of Cinerama coincided roughly with its replacement by a simpler, cheaper, technically inferior version, and view DMR with alarm. IMAX originally reserved the phrase "the IMAX experience" for true 70 mm productions, but now allows its use on DMR productions as well. After ''The Lion King'' in 2003, no Hollywood studio engaged in re-releasing and restoring classic films through the IMAX DMR process until 2012 although ongoing conversion of new releases continued and continued to grow in number. James Cameron's ''Titanic'' underwent both 3D conversion and DMR conversion to 3D in 2012 as did '' Men in Black 3''. In August 2012 IMAX and
Paramount Pictures Paramount Pictures Corporation is an American film and television production company, production and Distribution (marketing), distribution company and the main namesake division of Paramount Global (formerly ViacomCBS). It is the fifth-oldes ...
announced a one-week exclusive re-release of '' Raiders of the Lost Ark'' on September 7, 2012, to promote the release of the Blu-Ray collection. The film, before it underwent DMR, was already restored in a 4K digital intermediate with 7.1 surround sound from the original negative. The process for IMAX theaters, like with the complete restoration, was supervised by
Steven Spielberg Steven Allan Spielberg (; born December 18, 1946) is an American director, writer, and producer. A major figure of the New Hollywood era and pioneer of the modern blockbuster, he is the most commercially successful director of all time. Sp ...
and sound designer Ben Burtt. "I didn't know if the 1981 print would stand up to a full IMAX transfer, so I came expecting a sort of grainy, muddy, and overly enlarged representation of the movie I had made years ago", Spielberg said. "I was blown away by the fact that it looked better than the movie I had made years ago."


Feature films

Many recent features have employed IMAX cameras for select scenes; however, before 2018 no full-length feature film was shot entirely using IMAX cameras due to the numerous difficulties presented with the format – the cameras were much larger and heavier than standard cameras and the noise they produced made dialogue recording difficult. The 70 mm cameras have short film loads ranging from 30 seconds to two minutes and the cost of the film stock was much greater than standard 35 mm film. However, these issues have been minimized thanks to the digital Arri Alexa IMAX camera, with two films having been shot entirely with the camera. '' The Dark Knight'' features six sequences (a total of 28 minutes) shot using IMAX. According to the film's press notes, this was the "first time ever that a major feature film has been even partially shot using IMAX cameras". Even before ''Dark Knight'', Nolan had wanted to shoot a film in the IMAX format, and he also used it for quiet scenes that it would make pictorially interesting. Nolan said that he wished that it were possible to shoot the entire film in IMAX: "if you could take an IMAX camera to Mount Everest or outer space, you could use it in a feature movie." Nolan chose to edit some of the IMAX sequences using the original camera negative to eliminate generation loss, while scenes that were digitally mastered were scanned and printed out at 8 thousand lines of horizontal resolution (8K). When the film opened in 94 IMAX venues in 2008, all of them were sold out for the opening weekend. A year later, director
Michael Bay Michael Benjamin Bay (born February 17, 1965) is an American film director and producer. He is best known for making big-budget, high-concept action films characterized by fast cutting, stylistic cinematography and visuals, and extensive use ...
was inspired by IMAX's use in ''The Dark Knight'' to feature big-screen sequences in '' Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen''. The film's co-writer Roberto Orci suggested that the IMAX footage would be 3D, but Bay later said that considering himself an "old school" filmmaker, he found 3D gimmicky and added that shooting in IMAX was easier than using stereoscopic cameras. The IMAX version of the film, in the end, contained almost ten minutes of IMAX-filmed footage out of the two and a half-hour film. Bay later partially filmed the third ''
Transformers ''Transformers'' is a media franchise produced by American toy company Hasbro and Japanese toy company Takara Tomy. It primarily follows the Autobots and the Decepticons, two alien robot factions at war that can transform into other forms, ...
'' film, '' Dark of the Moon'' in 3D but without IMAX. Bay returned to IMAX for the fourth film, '' Age of Extinction'', in 2014. It was the first feature film shot using digital IMAX 3D cameras. He again used IMAX 3D cameras while shooting the fifth film, '' Transformers: The Last Knight'', filming 98% of the film with 2 Alexa/IMAX cameras attached together to a special mount. Two years later,
Terrence Malick Terrence Frederick Malick (born November 30, 1943) is an American filmmaker. His films include ''Days of Heaven'' (1978), '' The Thin Red Line'' (1998), for which he received Academy Award nominations for Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay ...
's '' The Tree of Life'' filmed select sequences using IMAX cameras in often used natural light. The film used a mix of 35 mm film and regular 65 mm and the IMAX 15/70 mm format. The set of guidelines they fine-tuned for this film included an edict to achieve maximum resolution whenever possible. "We would have preferred to shoot the entire movie in IMAX," says cinematographer of the film Emmanuel Lubezki. "When the 65 mm and IMAX scenes do appear in the movie, they give you a jolt. It's a feeling of enhancement and majesty. It's almost as if someone cleaned off the window you were looking through". Although the film wasn't screened on any IMAX screen. After ''The Tree of Life'',
Brad Bird Phillip Bradley Bird (born September 24, 1957) is an American film director, animator, screenwriter, producer, and voice actor. He has had a career spanning forty years in both animation and live-action. Bird was born in Montana and grew up ...
's '' Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol'' had 25 minutes of footage shot using IMAX cameras. Bird believed that using IMAX format would bring back "a level of showmanship" to the presentation of Hollywood films, which he believes the industry has lost due to its emphasis on screening films in
multiplexes In telecommunications and computer networking, multiplexing (sometimes contracted to muxing) is a method by which multiple analog or digital signals are combined into one signal over a shared medium. The aim is to share a scarce resource - a ...
as opposed to grand theaters, and vetoing "first runs" in favor of wider initial releases. He also added that the IMAX format offered the viewer more immersion than digital 3D due to its brighter, higher quality image, which is projected on a larger screen, without the need for specialised glasses. ''Ghost Protocol'' opened on December 16, 2011, in almost 500 IMAX venues worldwide a week before its wide release where it earned third place in the box office and $12 million. As with ''The Dark Knight'', Christopher Nolan decided to film sequences of the sequel, '' The Dark Knight Rises'', in 15/70mm IMAX. Nolan elected not to film in 3D and stated that he intends to focus on improving image quality and scale using the IMAX format. In a then-Hollywood record, ''The Dark Knight Rises'' featured 72 minutes of footage shot in 70mm IMAX (roughly 2.5 times that of ''The Dark Knight's'' 28 minutes, however, this record was later overtaken by another Nolan film, ''Dunkirk'', which featured 79 minutes of IMAX) Because of the considerable noise IMAX cameras make, they used standard 65 mm cameras to shoot dialogue scenes, and dubbed dialogue in scenes shot with IMAX cameras. Chairman and president of the IMAX Corporation Greg Foster stated that IMAX plans to run the film in its theaters for two months, despite only being contractually committed to run the film for two weeks in some theaters. J. J. Abrams's '' Star Trek Into Darkness'', Francis Lawrence's '' The Hunger Games: Catching Fire'', Luc Besson's '' Lucy'', and Christopher Nolan's '' Interstellar'' are films that were released between 2013 and 2014 that had sequences filmed with 15/70 mm IMAX cameras. On July 9, 2014, Bad Robot (J. J. Abrams's production company) confirmed via a picture uploaded to Twitter that one sequence in Disney and Lucasfilm's '' Star Wars: The Force Awakens'' would be captured with the IMAX 15/70 perf film camera, in addition to the standard 35 mm film cameras that Abrams and his cinematographer Dan Mindel have employed for shooting the movie. The next installment in the franchise
Rian Johnson Rian Craig Johnson (born December 17, 1973) is an American filmmaker. He made his directorial debut with the neo-noir mystery film ''Brick'' (2005), which received positive reviews and grossed nearly $4 million on a $450,000 budget. Transitio ...
's '' Star Wars: The Last Jedi'', released in December 2017, also included sequences shot with 15/70mm IMAX cameras. Adele's music video " Hello", released in 2015, became the first music video that was partially filmed with IMAX cameras. In April 2015, Marvel Studios announced that Russo brothers' '' Captain America: Civil War'' would be the first film to use the new ARRI Alexa IMAX 2D digital camera, which was used to shoot approximately 15 minutes of the film. In May 2015, the Russo brothers announced that their films '' Avengers: Infinity War'' and '' Avengers: Endgame'', released in 2018 and 2019, the first Hollywood feature films shot entirely in IMAX, albeit using ARRI Alexa IMAX cameras instead of 15/70 perf film.
Rihanna Robyn Rihanna Fenty ( ; born February 20, 1988) is a Barbadian singer, actress, and businesswoman. Born in Saint Michael and raised in Bridgetown, Barbados, Rihanna auditioned for American record producer Evan Rogers who invited her to th ...
's music video "
Sledgehammer A sledgehammer is a tool with a large, flat, often metal head, attached to a long handle. The long handle combined with a heavy head allows the sledgehammer to gather momentum during a swing and apply a large force compared to hammers designed t ...
", released in 2016, was the second music video to use the new ARRI Alexa IMAX camera. Other films between 2016 and 2021 that captured with IMAX cameras were Zack Snyder's '' Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice'',
Clint Eastwood Clinton Eastwood Jr. (born May 31, 1930) is an American actor and film director. After achieving success in the Western TV series '' Rawhide'', he rose to international fame with his role as the " Man with No Name" in Sergio Leone's "'' Do ...
's '' Sully'',
Damien Chazelle Damien Sayre Chazelle (; born January 19, 1985) is an American film director, screenwriter and producer. He is known for his films '' Whiplash'' (2014), '' La La Land'' (2016), and '' First Man'' (2018). For ''Whiplash'', he was nominated for t ...
's '' First Man'',
Jon Favreau Jonathan Kolia Favreau (; born October 19, 1966) is an American actor and filmmaker. As an actor, Favreau has appeared in films such as '' Rudy'' (1993), '' PCU'' (1994), '' Swingers'' (1996), ''Very Bad Things'' (1998), '' Deep Impact'' (1998) ...
's ''
The Lion King ''The Lion King'' is a 1994 American animated musical drama film produced by Walt Disney Feature Animation and released by Walt Disney Pictures. The 32nd Disney animated feature film and the fifth produced during the Disney Renaissance ...
, '' Patty Jenkins' '' Wonder Woman 1984'' and Cary Joji Fukunaga's '' No Time to Die''. ''Sully'' was filmed with ARRI Alexa IMAX cameras for almost the entire film and ''The Lion King'' for select sequences. The rest had sequences that were filmed with 15/70 mm IMAX cameras. Five Chinese titles have been captured with IMAX digital cameras (including two with IMAX-certified cameras); selected scenes in Jiang Wen's ''
Gone with the Bullets ''Gone with the Bullets'' (Chinese: 一步之遥) is a 2014 Chinese film directed by Jiang Wen and also starring Jiang Wen, Ge You, Zhou Yun and Shu Qi. Production started on location in Beijing at the China Film Group studio in Huairou on October ...
'' in 2014, the entirety of
Guan Hu Guan Hu (, born August 1, 1968) is a sixth generation Chinese film director.Zhang, Zhen (2007), The Urban Generation: Chinese Cinema and Society at the Turn of the Twenty-first Century', Page 54. Duke University Press. . Google Book Search. Ret ...
's '' The Eight Hundred'' in 2020, almost all of Chen Sicheng's '' Detective Chinatown 3'' in 2021 and the entirety of
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, Tsui Hark and Dante Lam's '' The Battle at Lake Changjin'' and ''
The Battle at Lake Changjin II ''The Battle at Lake Changjin II'', also known as ''Water Gate Bridge'', is a 2022 Chinese war film and the sequel to ''The Battle at Lake Changjin'' (2021). It was directed and produced by Chen Kaige, Tsui Hark, and Dante Lam and stars Wu Jing, ...
'' with IMAX-certified Red Ranger Monstro cameras in 2020 and 2022. Christopher Nolan used 15/70 mm IMAX cameras again on his next film, ''
Dunkirk Dunkirk (french: Dunkerque ; vls, label=French Flemish, Duunkerke; nl, Duinkerke(n) ; , ;) is a commune in the department of Nord in northern France.
''. However, unlike the previous films, where he used the cameras for select sequences, Nolan used IMAX as the primary shooting format, with 75% (about 79 minutes) of the 106-minute film featuring footage shot in 70 mm IMAX (breaking the aforementioned record that a previous Nolan film, '' The Dark Knight Rises'', held). This was possible due to the sparsity of dialogue in the film, as 15/70 mm IMAX cameras are notoriously noisy (a few dialogue-heavy scenes were shot with regular 70 mm film cameras from Panavision). IMAX cameras were also used hand-held for the first time, as Nolan was advised by both
Steven Spielberg Steven Allan Spielberg (; born December 18, 1946) is an American director, writer, and producer. A major figure of the New Hollywood era and pioneer of the modern blockbuster, he is the most commercially successful director of all time. Sp ...
and
Ron Howard Ronald William Howard (born March 1, 1954) is an American director, producer, screenwriter, and actor. He first came to prominence as a child actor, guest-starring in several television series, including an episode of '' The Twilight Zone''. ...
that it was the best way to shoot on vessels. ''Dunkirk'' received the widest release on 70mm IMAX since his last film, '' Interstellar'', with the film being released on the format in 37 theaters around the world. The director's 2020 film, ''
Tenet A tenet is a synonym for axiom, one of the principles on which a belief or theory is based. Tenet may also refer to: Media * Tenet (band), a heavy metal band * TENET (ensemble), an American early music vocal and instrumental group * ''Tenet'' ( ...
'' filmed 76 minutes with 15/70 mm IMAX cameras, the rest of the film was shot with regular 70 mm film cameras from Panavision. The film's six-minute opening sequence was shown before IMAX screenings of '' Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker''. Tenet was shown over 13 theaters globally in 70 mm IMAX. In September 2020, IMAX announced a new program called 'Filmed in IMAX', a new partnership with camera manufacturers to meet filmmaker demand for the format. Through the program, IMAX will certify digital cameras with brands including
ARRI The Arri Group () is a German manufacturer of motion picture film equipment. Based in Munich, the company was founded in 1917. It produces professional motion picture cameras, lenses, lighting and post-production equipment. Hermann Simon ment ...
, Panavision, Red Digital Cinema and
Sony , commonly stylized as SONY, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. As a major technology company, it operates as one of the world's largest manufacturers of consumer and professional ...
to work in the IMAX format when paired with its post-production process. The new program certifies the ARRI Alexa LF and Mini LF, Panavision Millennium DXL2, Red Ranger Monstro and Komodo and Sony's CineAlta Venice cameras along with the ARRI Alexa IMAX camera previously announced with ARRI Rental. As part of the program, IMAX will also certify independent camera rental houses that can supply certified cameras worldwide, starting with Panavision, ARRI and Keslow Camera. IMAX will select only a limited number of films to participate in the program each year. James Gunn's '' The Suicide Squad'' (shot with the Red Ranger Monstro and Komodo), Colin Tilley's ''
If I Can't Have Love, I Want Power ''If I Can't Have Love, I Want Power'' is the fourth studio album by American singer Halsey, released on August 27, 2021, by Capitol Records. It was written by Halsey, Johnathan Cunningham, Greg Kurstin, and its producers Trent Reznor and Attic ...
'' (shot with the ARRI Alexa IMAX),
Destin Daniel Cretton Destin Daniel Cretton is an American filmmaker. He is best known for his films ''Short Term 12'' (2013), '' The Glass Castle'' (2017), ''Just Mercy'' (2019) and the Marvel Studios film '' Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings'' (2021). He h ...
's '' Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings'',
Denis Villeneuve Denis Villeneuve (; born October 3, 1967) is a Canadian filmmaker. He is a four-time recipient of the Canadian Screen Award (formerly Genie Award) for Best Direction, winning for '' Maelström'' in 2001, '' Polytechnique'' in 2009, ''Incendies ...
's ''
Dune A dune is a landform composed of wind- or water-driven sand. It typically takes the form of a mound, ridge, or hill. An area with dunes is called a dune system or a dune complex. A large dune complex is called a dune field, while broad, f ...
'',
Chloé Zhao Chloé Zhao, born Zhao Ting (, born 31 March 1982), is a Chinese filmmaker, known primarily for her work on independent films. Zhao's debut feature film, '' Songs My Brothers Taught Me'' (2015), premiered at Sundance Film Festival to critical a ...
's '' Eternals'' (all three titles shot with the ARRI Alexa LF and Mini LF) and Joseph Kosinski's '' Top Gun: Maverick'' (shot with the Sony CineAlta Venice) are among the first releases certified as 'Filmed in IMAX' through the new program. Other films between 2022 and 2024 that are captured with IMAX-certified cameras are
Sam Raimi Samuel M. Raimi ( ; born October 23, 1959) is an American filmmaker. He is best known for directing the ''Spider-Man'' trilogy (2002–2007) and the ''Evil Dead'' franchise (1981–present). He also directed the 1990 superhero film ''Darkman'' ...
's '' Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness'' (Shot with the Panavision Millennium DXL2),
Taika Waititi Taika David Cohen (born 16 August 1975), known professionally as Taika Waititi ( ), is a New Zealand filmmaker, actor, and comedian. He is a recipient of an Academy Award, a BAFTA Award, and a Grammy Award, and has received two nominations at ...
's '' Thor: Love and Thunder'' (shot with ARRI Alexa LF and Mini LF), Ryan Coogler's '' Black Panther: Wakanda Forever'' (shot with the Sony CineAlta Venice), Peyton Reed's '' Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania'' (Shot with the Panavision Millennium DXL2), Michael B. Jordan's ''
Creed III ''Creed III'' is an upcoming American sports drama film directed by Michael B. Jordan (in his feature directorial debut) with a screenplay by Keenan Coogler and Zach Baylin from a story they co-wrote with Ryan Coogler. The sequel to ''Creed ...
'' (shot with the Sony CineAlta Venice), James Wan's '' Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom'' (Shot with the ARRI Alexa LF and Mini LF), James Gunn's '' Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3'' (Shot with the Red Ranger Monstro),
Christopher McQuarrie Christopher McQuarrie is an American filmmaker. He received the BAFTA Award, Independent Spirit Award, and Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay for the neo-noir mystery film ''The Usual Suspects'' (1995). He made his directorial debut wit ...
's '' Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One'' (Shot with ARRI Alexa LF, Mini LF and Sony CineAlta Venice), Nia DaCosta's '' The Marvels'' (Shot with the ARRI Alexa LF and Mini LF),
Angel Manuel Soto Angel Manuel Soto (born January 28, 1983) is a Puerto Rican film director, producer, and screenwriter. Early life Angel Manuel Soto was born in Santurce, a neighborhood in San Juan, Puerto Rico. His parents were a car salesman and a flight at ...
's '' Blue Beetle'', Denis Villeneuve's '' Dune: Part Two'' (shot with ARRI Alexa LF and Mini LF). and
Marvel Studios Marvel Studios, LLC (originally known as Marvel Films from 1993 to 1996) is an American film and television production company that is a subsidiary of Walt Disney Studios, a division of the Walt Disney Company. Marvel Studios produces the Ma ...
' '' Blade''. In March 2022, IMAX plans to develop new 15/70 cameras that would be created with input from filmmakers such as
Jordan Peele Jordan Haworth Peele (born February 21, 1979) is an American actor, comedian, and filmmaker. He is best known for his film and television work in the comedy and horror genres. Peele's breakout role came in 2003, when he was hired as a cast membe ...
and Christopher Nolan. The work will be done in collaboration with
Kodak The Eastman Kodak Company (referred to simply as Kodak ) is an American public company that produces various products related to its historic basis in analogue photography. The company is headquartered in Rochester, New York, and is incorpor ...
, camera maker Panavision, and post-production company and film lab FotoKem. The large format company is also consulting with leading cinematographers including Linus Sandgren ('' No Time to Die''), Rachel Morrison (''
Black Panther A black panther is the melanistic colour variant of the leopard (''Panthera pardus'') and the jaguar (''Panthera onca''). Black panthers of both species have excess black pigments, but their typical rosettes are also present. They have been ...
''),
Bradford Young Bradford Marcel Young, American Society of Cinematographers, A.S.C (born July 6, 1977) is an American cinematographer. He is best known for his work on ''Selma (film), Selma'', ''When They See Us'', ''A Most Violent Year'', ''Solo: A Star Wars St ...
('' Arrival''), Dan Mindel (''
Star Trek ''Star Trek'' is an American science fiction media franchise created by Gene Roddenberry, which began with the eponymous 1960s television series and quickly became a worldwide pop-culture phenomenon. The franchise has expanded into vari ...
'') and Nolan's go-to DP, Hoyte van Hoytema. Peele's 2022 film '' Nope'' was filmed with the current generation of 15/70 mm IMAX cameras and Kodak 65 mm film. Nolan's upcoming 2023 film, '' Oppenheimer'' is also filming with the current generation of 15/70mm IMAX cameras and Kodak 65 mm film. It is also the first film to shoot sections in IMAX black and white analog photography. IMAX intends to add at least four new 15/70mm cameras to its offing over the next two years, with the first new camera expected to be put into use by late 2023. In April 2022, it was announced that the 2022 Pixar animated film ''
Lightyear A light-year, alternatively spelled light year, is a large unit of length used to express astronomical distances and is equivalent to about 9.46 trillion kilometers (), or 5.88 trillion miles ().One trillion here is taken to be 1012 ...
'' to have created a virtual IMAX camera in its production and the first 'animated' film to captured it. "We created a virtual IMAX camera with 1.43:1 aspect ratio and developed a pipeline to allow us to simultaneously shoot the film for IMAX, and then crop down for our standard 2.39:1 format," Jane Yen, Lightyear visual effects supervisor, revealed during a press conference. One of the two director's of photography Jeremy Lasky later said "I think this is the first that has been made for IMAX in this way. There's about a third of the film that was shot for IMAX. And the easy answer is that we have a set of lenses. And when I say lenses, I mean CG made". A set of lenses that recreate the look of an anamorphic lens, which is your typical wide screen. You'll notice things out of focus in the background instead of being round are like stretched a little bit. There's like that blue lens flare that you see. It's anamorphic lenses where the way to shoot wide screen in the sixties, seventies, and then later got phased out a little bit, but they're still used today. But those effects call to a period of sci-fi that we were looking at, which is why those same lenses or versions of those lenses were used on '' WALL-E''". Later he recommend "So for the 30 or so minutes of the movie in IMAX, we shot with those lenses opened up to the 1.43 aspect ratio and composed for that while keeping the composition as clear and as solid for a 2.39 crop from the center. So the wide screen image is pulled out of the IMAX image. Which all sounds really technical, but all it really means is, when you're watching it an IMAX screen, we were thinking about those scenes as IMAX. And it wasn't just some after the film was done, blow up of the movie".


In space exploration

IMAX cameras have flown in space on 17 occasions,
NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agency of the US federal government responsible for the civil space program, aeronautics research, and space research. NASA was established in 1958, succeedin ...
astronauts have used handheld IMAX cameras to document missions, and an IMAX camera has also been mounted in the payload bay of the Shuttle. Space shuttle mission
STS-41-C STS-41-C (formerly STS-13) was NASA's eleventh Space Shuttle mission, and the fifth mission of Space Shuttle ''Challenger''. The launch, which took place on April 6, 1984, marked the first direct ascent trajectory for a Space Shuttle mission. ...
filmed the deployment of the
LDEF NASA's Long Duration Exposure Facility, or LDEF (pronounced "eldef"), was a school bus-sized cylindrical facility designed to provide long-term experimental data on the outer space environment and its effects on space systems, materials, operati ...
(Long duration exposure facility) and the repair of the Solar Max satellite. This footage was included in the 1985 IMAX movie '' The Dream Is Alive''. Kennedy Space Center in Florida has two IMAX 3D theaters. These show space movies, including footage shot on missions and narrated by celebrities. Two of the IMAX cameras used by NASA are now on display at the
National Air and Space Museum The National Air and Space Museum of the Smithsonian Institution, also called the Air and Space Museum, is a museum in Washington, D.C., in the United States. Established in 1946 as the National Air Museum, it opened its main building on the N ...
in
Washington DC ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...
.


Awards

In 1996, IMAX was awarded the Oscar for Scientific and Technical Achievement by the
Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS, often pronounced ; also known as simply the Academy or the Motion Picture Academy) is a professional honorary organization with the stated goal of advancing the arts and sciences of motion ...
. The award cited IMAX's innovations in creating and developing a method of filming and exhibiting large-format, wide-angle motion pictures. To date, ten native-format IMAX format films have received
Academy Awards The Academy Awards, better known as the Oscars, are awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international film industry. The awards are regarded by many as the most prestigious, significant awards in the entertainment ind ...
nomination, with one winner. While on technical aspects and the usage of the IMAX system, only Wally Pfister's cinematography on '' The Dark Knight'' and Hoyte van Hoytema's cinematography on ''
Dunkirk Dunkirk (french: Dunkerque ; vls, label=French Flemish, Duunkerke; nl, Duinkerke(n) ; , ;) is a commune in the department of Nord in northern France.
'' have earned nominations. * ''
The Eruption of Mount St. Helens! ''The Eruption of Mount St. Helens!'' is a 1980 American short film, short documentary film directed by George Casey. Accolades It was nominated for an Academy Awards, Academy Award for Academy Award for Best Documentary (Short Subject), Best D ...
'', 1980 Documentary Short Subject * ''
Fires of Kuwait ''Fires of Kuwait'' is a 1992 American documentary film on the Kuwaiti oil fires directed by David Douglas. It was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature. The film was the winner of the 2005 Hall of Fame Award from Giant Sc ...
'', 1992 Documentary Feature * ''
The Living Sea ''The Living Sea'' is a 70mm American documentary film exploring marine locales intended to show the importance of protecting the ocean, released to IMAX theaters in 1995. It is narrated by actress Meryl Streep, with music by Sting, produced ...
'', 1995 Documentary Short Subject * '' Special Effects: Anything Can Happen'', 1996 Documentary Short Subject * '' Cosmic Voyage'', 1996 Documentary Short Subject * ''
Amazon Amazon most often refers to: * Amazons, a tribe of female warriors in Greek mythology * Amazon rainforest, a rainforest covering most of the Amazon basin * Amazon River, in South America * Amazon (company), an American multinational technolog ...
'', 1997 Documentary Short Subject * '' Alaska: Spirit of the Wild'', 1997 Documentary Short Subject * ''
More More or Mores may refer to: Computing * MORE (application), outline software for Mac OS * more (command), a shell command * MORE protocol, a routing protocol * Missouri Research and Education Network Music Albums * ''More!'' (album), by Booka ...
'', 1998 Animated Short Film * '' The Old Man and the Sea'', Winner 1999 Animated Short Film * '' Dolphins'', 2000 Documentary Short Subject


Other uses

Many IMAX films have been remastered into
HDTV High-definition television (HD or HDTV) describes a television system which provides a substantially higher image resolution than the previous generation of technologies. The term has been used since 1936; in more recent times, it refers to the g ...
format (cropped to fit into HDTV's 16:9 aspect ratio) for the MOJO HD,
HDNet AXS TV is an American cable television channel. Majority-owned by Anthem Sports & Entertainment, it is devoted primarily to music-related programming (such as concert films, documentaries, and reality series involving musicians) and combat sport ...
and HD Theatre networks and release on DVD and
Blu-ray Disc The Blu-ray Disc (BD), often known simply as Blu-ray, is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 2005 and released on June 20, 2006 worldwide. It is designed to supersede the DVD format, and capable of sto ...
. In July 2005, the BFI IMAX Cinema in London became the first to host live music concerts, using a digital non-IMAX projector. The Science Museum London and BFI IMAX Cinema have also hosted computer game tournaments using digital projectors. Several amusement park attractions have integrated IMAX film segments, including Back to the Future: The Ride formerly at
Universal Studios Universal Pictures (legally Universal City Studios LLC, also known as Universal Studios, or simply Universal; common metonym: Uni, and formerly named Universal Film Manufacturing Company and Universal-International Pictures Inc.) is an Americ ...
in Florida and California, Horizons formerly at
Epcot Epcot, stylized in all uppercase as EPCOT, is a theme park at the Walt Disney World Resort in Bay Lake, Florida. It is owned and operated by The Walt Disney Company through its Parks, Experiences and Products division. Inspired by an unre ...
and Soarin' Around the World at Disney California Adventure Park and
Epcot Epcot, stylized in all uppercase as EPCOT, is a theme park at the Walt Disney World Resort in Bay Lake, Florida. It is owned and operated by The Walt Disney Company through its Parks, Experiences and Products division. Inspired by an unre ...
.


Technical specifications

IMAX (15/70) * spherical lenses *
70 mm film 70 mm film (or 65 mm film) is a wide high-resolution film gauge for motion picture photography, with a negative area nearly 3.5 times as large as the standard 35 mm motion picture film format. As used in cameras, the film is wid ...
, 15 perforations per frame * horizontal rolling loop movement, from right to left (viewed from emulsion side) * 24 frames per second * ''camera aperture'': * ''projection aperture'': at least less than camera aperture on the vertical axis and at least less on the horizontal axis * ''aspect ratio'': 1.43:1 * ''DMR aspect ratio: 1.90:1, 2.39:1'' IMAX Dome/Omnimax ''Same as IMAX with the addition of'': * fisheye lenses * lens optically centered above film horizontal center line * projected elliptically on a dome screen, 20° below and 110° above perfectly centered viewers


Competitors

In late 2014, Dolby announced
Dolby Cinema Dolby Cinema is a premium cinema created by Dolby Laboratories that combines Dolby proprietary technologies such as Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos, as well as other signature entrance and intrinsic design features. The technology competes with ...
as an IMAX competitor with super-vivid image mainly in
High Dynamic Range High dynamic range (HDR) is a dynamic range higher than usual, synonyms are wide dynamic range, extended dynamic range, expanded dynamic range. The term is often used in discussing the dynamic range of various signals such as images, videos, au ...
with shadow. In Australia and New Zealand, Event Cinemas sells a premium cinema experience with a bigger screen, improved imagery and better seats marketed as Vmax. In the United States
Cinemark Cinemark Holdings, Inc. (stylized as CineMark from 1998 to 2022 and CINEMARK since 2022) is an American movie theater chain that started operations in 1984 and since then it has operated theaters with hundreds of locations throughout the America ...
has its Cinemark XD: Extreme Digital Cinema.


See also

* List of films released in IMAX *
List of IMAX films This is a list of films shot partially or in full with IMAX cameras, either on 15/70 film, with the Phantom 65 IMAX 3D, with the ARRI Alexa IMAX, with other IMAX-certified digital cameras or IMAX Live Events shot with IMAX-certified cameras ...
* List of IMAX venues *
List of IMAX-based rides This is a list of amusement rides that use (or used) IMAX technology in their operation. The IMAX format used is listed, along with the ride's location and the date of the ride's opening, where available. See also *List of amusement rides base ...
*
China Film Giant Screen China Film Giant Screen (CFGS) is a Chinese premium large film format company. The company was previously known as DMAX, with the name also referring to the film technology. It has been described as a competitor to IMAX Corporation and its IMAX fi ...
, a similar format developed to break IMAX's large-screen monopoly in China * RealD Cinema


References

3D Image Stereoscopy (also called stereoscopics, or stereo imaging) is a technique for creating or enhancing the illusion of depth in an image by means of stereopsis for binocular vision. The word ''stereoscopy'' derives . Any stereoscopic image is ...


External links

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Large Formats
Describes the differences between the three different "large-format" or "giant-screen" formats, the IMAX Digital format, and the conventional formats.
IMAX Soundtracks Database
IMAX Soundtracks Database * YouTube videos explaining the theater operation and maintenance processes o
threading & playing
a 70mm IMAX film
building a film

alt
by splicing together 40 reels shipped in 7 boxes making one feature-length film 9 miles long weighing 1,200 pounds, an
replacing the projector's xenon lamp
($5600 bulb cost). {{DEFAULTSORT:Imax 3D imaging Canadian inventions Film and video technology Film formats Motion picture film formats Theatres Premium large format movie formats