posted 08-16-2004 03:49 PM                       

quote: "IMAX reports"

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4 open in time for Polar Express

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posted 09-03-2004 10:44 AM                       

quote:

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Posted on Friday, September 03, 2004 - 10:56 am:

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Will Buckland Screen Truly Be The (I)MAX?
By LARRY WILLIAMS
Courant Staff Writer

September 3 2004

Back in the 1970s, there was a theater in Vernon with the smallest screen that any of its customers had ever seen. Before the lights went down, that's what everybody talked about. But when the movie started, it was quickly forgotten.

In that theater, about the size of a dining room, it didn't take a big screen to present a big picture.

That's the principle underlying the recently announced plan to open an IMAX giant-screen theater at Showcase Cinemas Buckland Hills, installing it in an existing auditorium that seems nowhere near big enough.

Scheduled to open Nov. 10, it will be one of the first theaters in the nation to use IMAX's new MPX projection system, which the Canadian company hopes will lead to an IMAX explosion at multiplexes worldwide. It's the first system engineered to fit into a multiplex auditorium, and to run without need of a specially trained IMAX projectionist.

The size of the screen has not been determined but will probably be about 75 percent larger than the 17- by 40-foot screen there now, said Jennifer Hanson, spokeswoman for National Amusements Inc., the theater owner.

At 1,190 square feet, that would make it less than half the size of the 40- by 66-foot screen at the American Museum of Natural History in New York, which is one of the smaller IMAX screens around. The Maritime Aquarium in Norwalk has a 64- by 76-foot screen. There's a 75- by 97-foot behemoth at the Loews Cineplex Lincoln Square in New York. The GigaVision giant screen at Hartford's Crown Palace and Odyssey is 50 feet by 70 feet.

The question is: At what point in the downsizing process does IMAX devolve into "mini-MAX"? Will audiences who've seen IMAX movies elsewhere accept the smaller version as the real deal - what the company calls "The IMAX Experience"?

"There's no question that this product has all of the `Wow!' of IMAX," said Richard Gelfond, co-CEO of IMAX. It's not the size of the screen alone, he said, but "the relationship between the seats and the screen, the way it is projected and the sound in relation to the viewer" that combine to create the sensation of immersion that is the signature of IMAX.

"That's that feeling you get when you're sitting in an IMAX theater and you realize there is more picture than you can see," said Steve Laninga, IMAX sales manager for Celebration! Cinemas, which opened the nation's first MPX-design theater in Lansing, Mich., last fall.

He says the new system is as good as the old, if not better. "Everybody is right up next to the screen. You're getting an eyeful," Laninga said.

But the Lansing screen is 44 feet high by 70 feet wide, for 3,080 square feet, much larger than the likely Buckland Hills screen. On the other hand, the Buckland Hills screen will have a smaller audience to immerse - about 260, compared with 320 in Lansing.

The shrinking screen is not the only change that makes IMAX possible at Buckland Hills without gutting and rebuilding an auditorium. The other big difference is in the projection booth, where the original IMAX projector would not have fit.

Like nearly everything in the computer age, projection equipment has gotten better and, in the process, smaller. With vastly improved lenses, the IMAX projector no longer requires a gigantic 15,000-watt, water-cooled lamp, Laninga said.

"They've gotten more and more light to the screen as the years have gone by," he said. "The whole thing is about light on the screen, not light in the lamphouse."

The MPX system also is more in line with what multiplex operators are used to - a projector that runs itself. Everything is operated from a single control panel. It has an automatic film loader and self-diagnostic features that warn of potential problems.

"We know if belts are starting to wear down," Gelfond said. "Before, we had to wait for a belt to break. It's really a step forward." IMAX technicians can even make virtual house calls, he said, by "dialing in" to an MPX projector from Toronto.

What hasn't changed is the film, each frame measuring 2 inches high by 23/4 inches wide - 10 times bigger than a frame of 35mm film, with a corresponding difference in picture quality. IMAX "images are brighter, sharper and steadier than those produced by any other projection system," the company says.

The specially designed 14,000-watt, six-channel sound system also is the same as in other IMAX theaters.

"The MPX is designed to give a really good show to about 300 people," Laninga said. "I frankly prefer it to our [other IMAX] theater in Grand Rapids for overall enjoyment, especially of these DMR Hollywood films."

DMR, a trade name for digital remastering, is another IMAX initiative to extend its reach into the multiplex world. IMAX developed the process to enhance and enlarge 35mm films for the big screen. "Spider-Man 2" and "Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban" are now showing on IMAX screens, even at museums and science centers.

IMAX and National Amusements expect to open the Buckland Hills theater with "The Polar Express," a computer-animated feature based on the popular children's book. It's the first Hollywood movie to open in IMAX 3D on the same day it opens in regular theaters.

Hartford already has a large-format theater in Crown Palace's Odyssey, but it uses a different technology, GigaVision. The screen is IMAX-size, but the film is half the size. Thus the Odyssey cannot show IMAX films, or films in IMAX 3D. Although many big-screen movies are released in both formats, many more are not. Lately, the Odyssey has been showing 35mm films.

The success of Buckland Hills and other MPX installations is crucial if IMAX is to grow from 240 theaters worldwide to thousands of theaters, said James Hyder, editor of LF [Large Format] Examiner, a trade paper.

"Most of the [company's] profits come from the leasing of new theater systems," he said. "There is something on the order of 30,000 conventional 35mm screens in this country, and 180 or so IMAX screens, so clearly the multiplex chains present a potential market."

Until now, growth in the multiplex world has been glacier-like, given the high cost of building and operating an IMAX theater.

Gelfond said an MPX installation will cost about $1.5 million, about one third the cost of the last generation of IMAX projector, which also fit into a 35mm booth, but required a trained IMAX projectionist on duty at all times.

There's been some grousing by IMAX projectionists on Internet message boards about the risks of leaving IMAX projection in the hands of "popcorn kids."

Hyder said that's a legitimate issue. "This is supposed to be the best quality projection system in the world. That has been a hallmark of IMAX projection for 35 years," he said. "Lowering the cost by making projectionists less involved is, at least theoretically, a problem."
Copyright 2004, Hartford Courant

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