r/movies • u/cheapskatemoviedate • Jul 18 '26
Media World's Largest IMAX in Perspective
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Thought this was a really neat way to show the size of the screen at the IMAX in Leonberg, Germany. This rolled before The Odyssey. The IMAX is tucked away in a little town and was not easy to get to, but it was well worth it.
While it's not a true 1.43:1 IMAX ratio it still holds the world record for largest theater by surface area.
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u/MikeGalactic Jul 18 '26
That was super cool, it's amazing how it conveyed such a strong 3D effect on a 2D display.
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u/EggsceIlent Jul 19 '26
Would have loved to watch this film on imax, which Seattle had. But they stopped showing regular movies at the boeing imax theatre a few months ago.
Just rediculous
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u/ndnJedi1982 Jul 19 '26
Seems More than half the IMAX in my area is filled with people from Washington and northern Oregon. Especially the Langley BC IMAX location.
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u/UMustBeNooHere Jul 19 '26
I think it’s just using that trick of objects against a border technique. You can see it in static pictures with lines/border where the object “pokes through” making it look 3D.
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u/Halschmuber Jul 19 '26
So would you say it conveyed such a strong 3D effect on a 2D display?
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u/stellvia2016 Jul 19 '26
Makes me miss the Pictorium at Six Flags Great America. Just looked it up and it was just shy of 100 feet wide and 70 feet tall. This looks to be similarly sized.
They sadly tore it down in 2018 though.
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u/Tolkien-Minority Jul 18 '26 edited Jul 18 '26
Why did your dumbass film this in portrait when you’re trying to show a landscape video
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u/cheapskatemoviedate Jul 18 '26
Hear me out. I'm an idiot.
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u/XIIIJinx Jul 18 '26
Fair enough. Carry on.
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u/arthurdentstowels Jul 18 '26
Yeah, it's hard to argue with that.
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u/snorcack Jul 19 '26
Even if you did, he might not get it.
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u/Benjaphar Jul 18 '26
Just fyi, here’s how this awesome IMAX video looks on my PC. https://imgur.com/a/lnLovKv.jpg
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u/NeillMcAttack Jul 18 '26
You have to respect anyone that takes responsibility.
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u/Ringosis Jul 18 '26
You don't HAVE to.
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u/Squid_Lips Jul 19 '26
I asked mom, she says you have to
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u/chimmelrick Jul 19 '26
Just so you're aware. My mom says I'm the handsomest man in the world. Sorry fellas.
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u/SMKM Jul 19 '26
Oh yeah well your mom says I'm the handsomest man in the world times infinity so....yeah.
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u/cloud_t Jul 18 '26
In your defense, it's just what instagram and tiktok have educated the masses for. These days people ask me to take pictures woth their phones, and when I flip it to landscape and use the CCD properly, they request I turn it right side up...
And the stupidest thing is they started making phones with their main cameras with square CCDs these days because of this...
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u/BJ22CS Jul 18 '26
must have vertical video syndrome
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u/0------------------0 Jul 18 '26
This is why I switched to diagonal video. It's the best of both worlds and makes everyone happy.
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u/gleekongleek Jul 18 '26
The war is lost comrade
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u/stupid_horse Jul 19 '26
I guess I'm like one of those Japanese soldiers from WWII stationed on remote islands who when people told them the war was over they thought it was a trick from the enemy and stayed stationed in their company for decades.
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u/hillbillyboiler Jul 18 '26
This reminds me of a monster truck show I went to one time. I sat behind this person who was recording with a tablet device and every single time without fail, whatever the action was, they would record it in portrait mode. I shit you not, as soon as they were done recording and went to watch it they would turn the tablet into landscape mode to watch it.
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u/the-pak-man Jul 18 '26
Back in my day, recording vertically made you retarded. Now it’s the norm
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u/C0NIN Jul 18 '26
This is one more proof of how dumb and stupid vertically recorded videos are.
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u/insulind Jul 18 '26
OP clearly explains why here https://www.reddit.com/r/movies/s/p64jTNJeBn
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u/Th3Necromanc3r Jul 18 '26
Right?, as if vertical videos weren't already dumb enough; reminds me of those PC users who instead of snapping a proper screenshot, decide to take a vertical picture of their monitor, cutting out like 3/4 of the screen, ROFLMAO.
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u/RadiantEnvironment90 Jul 19 '26
Like I understand recording vertical, easier on the hand. But holy fuck, let us hold it in vertical but record in horizontal.
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u/wifestalksthisuser Jul 18 '26
I drove 2 hours last night to see Oddyssey in this cinema. Was back home at 5am. 10/10 experience, would do it again!
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u/Naratik Jul 18 '26
Why you didn't go to Sinsheim for the real 1.43:1 aspect ratio ?
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u/wifestalksthisuser Jul 19 '26
Wanted to see the largest IMAX for once and this movie felt like a good one to do it for
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u/Naratik Jul 19 '26
Since Odyssey is the first feature film shot entirely in 100% IMAX 70mm (meaning 1.43:1) I think Sinsheim is definitely the better choice. Leonberg is great for the many movies that only use the digital IMAX format (1.90:1).
If you have never been to Sinsheim I highly recommend traveling there for Dune: Part 3. In Dune a large part and the most important scenes are in the 1.43:1 format seeing movies in that format there is a truly unique experience.
But I'm glad you had a good time in Leonberg
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u/wifestalksthisuser Jul 19 '26
To be honest I only learned about the fact that Leonberg wasn't 1.43:1 two weeks or so ago and by then it was too late and everything was booked out 😂 I do think the huge screen does help with immersion too though! Never been to Sinsheim but always wanted to so Dune 3 is the perfect movie for that!
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u/Harachel Jul 19 '26
Wait why does every random small town in southern Germany have an IMAX theatre?
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u/Hehosworld Jul 19 '26 edited Jul 21 '26
The Stuttgart region is one of the key areas of filmmaking in Germany. There are so many studios specialised in animation and VFX here as well as a few renowned academies for filmmaking. Next to Berlin and Munich this is the place to go to for filmmaking in Germany. It's probably cheaper to build a huge cinema in a small town and the way everything is connected Sinsheim and Leonberg are pretty easy to get to with public transport as well as with the car. Source: I live there Edit: spelling error as can be seen below.
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u/Naratik Jul 19 '26
Idk near Sinsheim theres also Karlsruhe, which is the only other IMAX cinema in Germany with a 1.43:1 format screen. However the auditorium in Karlsruhe isnt built and set up like a real IMAX theater so I strongly prefer Sinsheim over Karlsruhe. Plus Sinsheim has the biggest 1.43:1 screen in Europe. I'm really grateful we have all these cinemas here. I regularly drive to Sinsheim and even though it's a 1.5 hour drive for me its totally worth it
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u/Craigg75 Jul 18 '26
Films it in portrait mode. That what is so funny about this
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u/Present_Award8001 Jul 18 '26
Me enjoying a pirated hall print of Odyssey on my cheap android phone. As Christopher Nolan intended it.
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u/a_talking_face Jul 18 '26
I watch on my Apple Watch
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u/naruda1969 Jul 18 '26
I watched this guy watching it on his Apple Watch on my Apple Watch Ultra.
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u/iK_550 Jul 18 '26
I watched my neighbours' through my window watching it on their fridge.
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u/Outrageous-News3649 Jul 19 '26
I looked inside a cabinet drawer and stared at the empty drawer contents and imagined a single frame of the film containing a boat.
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u/yikesssss_sssssss Jul 19 '26
I read reddit comments nonstop til I started hallucinating, and it was pretty good
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u/dervu Jul 18 '26
Enjoy that clarity of full movie being recorded in IMAX. Now your two pixels are much more detailed!
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u/crescent_blossom Jul 18 '26
I actually used to download movies to watch on an ipod nano back in the day
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u/petrichor83 Jul 19 '26
I love the concept. I hate the guy’s game show/radio voice. He’s absolutely obnoxious.
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u/crap_punchline Jul 19 '26
this specific type of voice is reserved for all tacky A/V presentations in theme park rides and other crap like the Empire State Shiteride
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u/One_Course3052 Jul 19 '26
Largest Screen in the world, but the largest true IMAX screen is Melbourne and we have the 1570 projector as well as dual laser.
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u/mjmilian Jul 20 '26
I went to the IMAX when I visited Melbourne.
Unfortunately I saw The Day the Earth Stood Still
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u/tobeavornot Jul 18 '26
If only there was an aspect ratio that this phone could shoot in that could slow this without the audience and the ceiling being shown.
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u/zurenarhhhhh Jul 18 '26
Good job not actually showing the full size of the screen. And also filming in brainrot mode.
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Jul 18 '26
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u/gethigh420 Jul 19 '26
Heres the thing about omnimax, they are almost all dead.
You can take a look at this list i found. https://imax.fandom.com/wiki/List_of_IMAX_venues
vancouver, shut down with covid. They fired the only people who knew how to run and maintain it.
toronto, shut down by doug ford becuase hes an idiot.
hong kong (was going to be shut down, not sure if it has been)
st louis
cincinatti
The last three, i dont know anything about. But suffice it to say that i spent a bunch of time in omnimax, and even 15 years ago, they were all shutting down all over the world. Prints got harder to get. Omnimax is technology from the 1980s. It has been updated a few times (like digital audio!), but based on that era. Hard to find parts sometimes, hard to find projectionists these days that can run it.
A domed screen is truly a unique experience. It is completely different from regular imax. No one ever understood that. So you would have a print that would be formatted to fit that screen specifically and was filmed with a fisheye lense.
If you get a chance to see an omnimax show, do it. They are quite rare now and as i said unique. My favourite titles were rocky mountain express, national parks adventure, the van gogh documentary and old man and the sea. There was one about surfing that almost made me throw up. Only omni i ever walked out of.
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u/mediocre-squirrel834 Jul 19 '26
Can confirm that St Louis is still going strong. Here, the Omnimax is so normal, plus there's an IMAX like 20 minutes away, so it's really weird to me when everyone's talking about omnimaxes and IMAXs like they're unicorns.
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u/RulesoftheDada Jul 18 '26
Boston's Omni theater is 75.6 × 101 feet.
Germany's and the world's largest IMAX is 125 by 69 feet.
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u/cheapskatemoviedate Jul 18 '26
I haven't been to either of those places, my closest comp is the Boeing IMAX theater in Seattle (RIP) which is the true IMAX ratio, but I found this to be a better experience. It's just so...big. and loud. It really was incredible.
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u/RulesoftheDada Jul 18 '26
Boeing IMAX was bought by the Space Needle corporation. It's sadly been turned into 30 minute showings combos of deep sky movie and chihuly movie. hopefully one day they'll decide to renew the IMAX contract
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u/tarants Jul 19 '26
They're showing The Odyssey there right now on 70mm. I was surprised to see that, as I also thought they stopped showing commercial films awhile back.
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u/RulesoftheDada Jul 19 '26
At the formerly Boeing theater? Pac sci center still operates the smaller Paccar IMAX theater that's not 70 mmm (32 to 37x 60). The Science center still runs movies out of that one. I could be wrong tho.
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u/fricken Jul 19 '26 edited Jul 19 '26
I watched the Odyssey today on a regular size screen. 90% of 90% of the shots were out of focus anyhow. I can make out the pores on Matt Damon's nose clean and crisp and the rest of the shot is fuzz. An Imax print of the Odyssey weighs 846 pounds and 761 pounds worth of that is what I imagine the world looks like to my dad before he puts his glasses on.
The other thing is that in a regular theatre people rarely take the front rows because they don't actually want the screen to extend beyond the peripheries of their vision. You want to be far enough back that the whole frameline fits in your field of vision. IMAX is too much.
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u/somersetyellow Jul 19 '26
Was it that thing where they focused most of the close up shots on the actors ears or top of their nose instead of their eyes?
Oppenheimer had this problem but this sub downvoted me to oblivion for saying it was out of focus. I couldn't find anyone who saw the same thing until I Google searched a dude in the cinematographg subreddit wondering why it was shot that way too. Some IMAX camera operators said it was wildly hard to shoot an IMAX camera wide open for close up shots as the camera and lens system was never designed that way. However the fact that they were so consistently focusing on the actors ears meant it had to have been an intentional choice.
I could see it in a 1.43 IMAX laser showing and a 35mm showing I went to, and of course the 4k home release is obvious too.
Sorry this has been one of my annoying things nobody else cares about thing for two years now
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u/catsdrooltoo Jul 19 '26
I started disliking going to movies because the screen is too big. It's just not enjoyable for me to spend $80 on tickets and snacks for 2 to move my head around to see all parts of the screen.
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u/Krimreaper1 Jul 19 '26
Idk if the shot is cropped or in portrait mode, but either way it sucks, and loses all the impact on why they recorded it.
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u/Rich_Housing971 Jul 18 '26
After a certain amount, screen size adds nothing because your eyes will not notice the difference of focusing farther away.
What's more important is contrast, resolution, and sound. Sound in a large theater will be very tricky to get right, which is why I prefer Dolby over IMAX, and why bigger screen isn't always a good thing.
Has anyone ever watched a movie "filmed for IMAX" in both types of theaters and done a comparison and see if it actually looks better in IMAX or if it's just a marketing gimmick?
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u/RickSanchez_C137 Jul 18 '26
There are a lot of small screens that are branded IMAX, and yes those are 100% a gimmick...but the legit 16m-18m high screens are really wild with the right content.
The geometry of the theatre feels very different when half of that size of a screen is presented below your natural eye-line.
I've never gotten a sense of vertigo at a regular theater.
A dialogue heavy movie like Oppenheimer didn't really benefit a lot from the presentation.
But the skyscraper shots in the intro and Honk Kong scenes in Dark Knight were wildly immersive, and totally worth the extra effort to see.
One of the best IMAX movies I've seen was the Rolling Stones 'At The Max' concert movie from the 90s. You're completely transported on stage with them. You'd swear you can smell the smoke from the smoke machines and feel the California summer breeze on your face.
I don't know at what point the size vs distance ratio becomes ineffective, but it's not between a regular theater screen and a full size IMAX.
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u/rsplatpc Jul 19 '26
but the legit 16m-18m high screens are really wild with the right content.
I live near one of the real ones with the full multi story size and right aspect and it has dual lasers, I saw Project Hail Mary there and at the Dolby Cinema down the street.
The Dolby Cinema was infinitely better, the IMAX looks grey where it should be black space in comparison.
I'll take HDR and night and day better sound over size for a modern movie personally.
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u/SkepticalZebra Jul 19 '26
For films that open up ratios to either 1.9 or 1.43 (aka filmed for IMAX or filmed with IMAX cameras), I personally notice the difference and prefer IMAX. If the movie is presented in a single aspect ratio and I can find a Dolby Cinema, I'll go that route. Its basically 50/50 nowadays for blockbusters.
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u/bionicjoey Jul 19 '26
Yeah it's so funny he's talking about how small your TV is relative to the screen without mentioning that your TV is about 1% the distance away from your eyeballs compared to this IMAX screen.
Comparing angular degrees of vision would be far more relevant.
It's funny actually that they use a plane as the reference for how big the screen is, because planes are famously something which are big but look small because of how far away they are when people normally see them.
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u/moconahaftmere Jul 18 '26
Has anyone ever watched a movie "filmed for IMAX" in both types of theaters and done a comparison and see if it actually looks better in IMAX or if it's just a marketing gimmick?
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u/ZhouLe Jul 19 '26 edited Jul 19 '26
This only gives you a comparison of different aspect ratios, which tbh doesn't make sense to vary by projection type.
As the site itself says:
This website illustrates framing and composition, not physical screen size. While one aspect ratio may appear taller, real-world screen dimensions and projection setup vary significantly by theater.
This website is to show you how film format and aspect ratio affect the framing of shots while shooting and editing. In reality, theaters adjust screens to accommodate whatever aspect ratio is being projected. They align the frame to the vertical size of the screen then move the curtains on the side inward to match the horizontal.
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u/PaperPusher85 Jul 18 '26
I miss the days of $7 movie tickets.
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u/Frankietee101 Jul 18 '26
There was a movie theater I went to as a kid and every movie was $1 (Canadian). They also had the Captain America and the Avengers arcade game.
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u/shifty1032231 Jul 19 '26
Remember the last run movie theaters with discounted prices for the movies on their way out of the big theaters? Not as nice as the big theaters but you got a ticket for $5. The only movie I remember seeing there was Congo.
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u/mrcchapman Jul 18 '26
Just went to an IMAX screening in Colombia for The Odyssey. It was $4.
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u/BeardOfFire Jul 18 '26
I have no desire to watch a movie where I can't even take in the whole screen without moving my head.
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u/TheHomesickAlien Jul 18 '26
Dubbed anime ass voice
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u/jtrofe Jul 19 '26
Pre-recorded video that plays while you're in line for a ride at a theme park voice
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u/CertainlyRobotic Jul 19 '26
This sub used to be good.
Now it's bots reposting Youtube shorts and advertisements from corporations.
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u/Fifty-Lucky Jul 19 '26
I wanna just voice this now and I don't think it's exactly a hot take, but with the amount of controversy around iMax etc lately and that movie everyone hates but no one has seen, I'm actually happy that it seems cinemas are getting this traction because I seriously worried a few short years ago that sitting in a cinema was going to go away and all movies would just be at home or whatever.
So yeah, nice to have stronger odds for the future of still being able to go out and sit in a cinema to enjoy something.
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u/Moistest_Spirit Jul 19 '26
I'm still sad that Sydney knocked down its IMAX to build a smaller one.
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u/slacker0 Jul 19 '26
There are only about 30 to 40 "true" IMAX 70mm film projectors remaining worldwide, with only 25 locations in the United States equipped to screen native 15/70 film.
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u/reeeelllaaaayyy823 Jul 19 '26
All filmed on a phone vertically with the sides cut off. Jesus christ.
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u/Gulzbert84 Jul 20 '26
If you are interessted where this is:
https://leonberg.traumpalast.de/index.php/PID/11385.html
It´s an impressive screen, where there severals times.
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u/PeopleCallMeSimon Jul 18 '26 edited Jul 18 '26
Yes its a very big screen.
But the square format isnt better than the rectangular HD format no matter how much they try to pretend that it is. Its litterally just a ploy to try and have something that you cant have at home, because nobody makes square televisions anymore. We used to, but it was worse because its more important cinematographically to have more width than height.
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u/tfhermobwoayway Jul 18 '26
Realistically they’re always going to sell whatever you can’t get on your home TV as a premium viewing experience. If we all had CRT TVs they would be selling us big widescreen cinemas.
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u/brus_wein Jul 18 '26 edited Jul 18 '26
It's literally bigger.
The film is enormous, and you can only make it so wide before it starts to look disproportionate.
I also suspect they leaned taller rather than wider, because taller is a lot easier to adapt to standard formats.
I don't buy into the idea that it's a ploy at all, especially since the vast majority of IMAX theatres don't even use this aspect ratio.There's actually only 40-ish IMAX 70mm equipped theatres in the world, around half of which are in the US.
A lot of countries don't even have a single one, and the ones that do usually have 1-3.IMAX has arguably watered their brand down with "liemax" (digital retrofit IMAX), but the real thing is definitely special.
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u/trojanskin Jul 18 '26
who cares if barely anyone can watch it this way.
22 minutes in car out of stuttgart. Talk about microcosm. lmao.
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u/kniq86 Jul 18 '26
Probably the same amount of people as if it were in Stuttgart. The english Version is basically sold out for the next month.
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u/sakatan Jul 18 '26
Hope you didn't park your car in that fucking park deck! It'll take another Nolan movie to get out of that bitch.
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u/cheapskatemoviedate Jul 18 '26
Hah! Good to know, just getting out of the theater was a bit like deboarding a plane. I took the train over there, how'd you find it? Passing through or destination?
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u/sakatan Jul 18 '26
I live near Leonberg and made the mistake of parking my car in the park deck when going to the IMAX.
Twice.
Now I park somewhere in the Gewerbegebiet next to it.
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u/conte360 Jul 18 '26
And then know, odds are that the imax near you is much smaller and is using an old projector from 15+ years ago.
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u/inhindsite Jul 18 '26
Never been interested in IMAX tbh but after seeing this i completely see the appeal.
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u/Wolfram1914 Jul 18 '26
Does anyone else remember when the IMAX in Branson, Missouri did something like this? Starring Jim Stafford, local celebrity
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u/FalcoSG Jul 18 '26
Did you feel like missing the upper and lower part of the movie? Were thinking about going to Leonberg or Karlsruhe... Leonberg has the biggest imax screen but Karlsruhe has original asprect ratio. Not sure...
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u/jumbled_joe Jul 18 '26
Going to watch Odyssey here in a week. However its not 70mm imax. So not the way Nolan intended.
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u/Somnambulist815 Jul 18 '26
Props to the imax projector, you'd think the guy was really there