Large Format/"Premium" Theaters (IMAX 15/70, Digital IMAX, XD, ETX, RPX, etc.)

[BozQ]

Originally Posted by antovolk

Rogue One wasn't filmed with IMAX-branded cameras unlike Civil War, TF4 etc, so that's a bad example and even so, it was filmed at a WIDER aspect ratio, IMAX is all about taller aspect ratios.

http://arrirentalgroup.com/alexa65/
They're the same camera. Rogue One is using the Alexa 65 as their primary camera. Civil War was only used during the airport battle.

Transformers: Age of Extinction was a different camera. Phantom 65 was a 4K 3D camera.

[antovolk]

Originally Posted by BozQ

http://arrirentalgroup.com/alexa65/
They're the same camera. Rogue One is using the Alexa 65 as their primary camera. Civil War was only used during the airport battle.

Transformers: Age of Extinction was a different camera. Phantom 65 was a 4K 3D camera.

Same camera, sure, but the one on CW was branded and promoted as an IMAX one.

And again, the main selling point of 'IMAX'-branded cameras is the fact that the end product will be released in a taller aspect ratio in IMAX theatres than the regular version.

[Eric The Duke]

Originally Posted by dvdmike

They are shooting digital "IMAX" that is not 4:3 and more and more screens are not 4:3 quite a few liemax screens are scope format now

That's my point. I live near 3 true IMAX screens that are 1.43 AR so that's why having the whole screen filled up is important to me. I understand they are starting to film a lot of movies in digital, but if you have 1.43 AR on film, you can also have 1.43 AR digital. I'm hoping they come up with a way to accomplish this.

[PeterTHX]

Originally Posted by Eric The Duke

I understand they are starting to film a lot of movies in digital, but if you have 1.43 AR on film, you can also have 1.43 AR digital. I'm hoping they come up with a way to accomplish this.

Digital sensors are natively wide-screen in capture.


1.43 is a "legacy" ratio at this point.

[UFAlien]

Originally Posted by Dubstar

Really? Where? (Ill be sure to avoid them)

Not quite "scope," technically, but IMAX theatres with ratios of 2.00:1 or wider include:

AMC Norwalk 20 (Norwalk, California) - 2.00:1
Carmike Grand Prarie 18 (Peoria, Illinois) - 2.00:1
Regal Sunset Station 13 (Henderson, Nevada) - 2.00:1
Regal Majestic Cinema 20 (Silver Spring, Maryland) - 2.03:1
TCL Chinese Theatre (Los Angeles, California) - 2.04:1
AMC Loews Boston Common 19 (Boston, Massachusetts) - 2.07:1
AMC Empire 25 (New York, New York) - 2.09:1
Cinemark Buckland Hills 18 (Manchester, Connecticut) - 2.09:1
Cinema De Lux City Center 15 (White Plains, New York) - 2.14:1
AMC Columbia 14 (Columbia, Maryland) - 2.17:1

I used to frequent the AMC Loews Boston Common, and their IMAX auditorium always cropped scope films slightly on the sides to fill the screen. Strangely "narrower" films were shown pillarboxed.

[dvdmike]

Originally Posted by UFAlien

Not quite "scope," technically, but IMAX theatres with ratios of 2.00:1 or wider include:

AMC Norwalk 20 (Norwalk, California) - 2.00:1
Carmike Grand Prarie 18 (Peoria, Illinois) - 2.00:1
Regal Sunset Station 13 (Henderson, Nevada) - 2.00:1
Regal Majestic Cinema 20 (Silver Spring, Maryland) - 2.03:1
TCL Chinese Theatre (Los Angeles, California) - 2.04:1
AMC Loews Boston Common 19 (Boston, Massachusetts) - 2.07:1
AMC Empire 25 (New York, New York) - 2.09:1
Cinemark Buckland Hills 18 (Manchester, Connecticut) - 2.09:1
Cinema De Lux City Center 15 (White Plains, New York) - 2.14:1
AMC Columbia 14 (Columbia, Maryland) - 2.17:1

I used to frequent the AMC Loews Boston Common, and their IMAX auditorium always cropped scope films slightly on the sides to fill the screen. Strangely "narrower" films were shown pillarboxed.

Plus the thousands worldwide

[UFAlien]

Thousands is something of an exaggeration. There are just over 1,000 IMAX theatres total worldwide. But yes, as someone previously mentioned, it's highly likely a higher percentage of international screens are in wider ratios because of how recent and rapid the overseas expansion has been.

[Geoff D]

Yep, they've expanded massively in China particularly.

[Geoff D]

Originally Posted by antovolk

It's probably cropping of sides to be consistent in the case of 'Born'. BvS did the same with a couple 5/70 shots in the IMAX sequences, and Catching Fire did with the Super 35 spherical stuff during the IMAX arena sequence (with the Blu-ray showing the most 'complete' image for these particular non-15/70 sourced shots)

That's not right mate. 4-perf Super 35 has a 1.33 aspect ratio, the entire reason they used Super 35 for the more intense action scenes in CF is because its squarer format translates perfectly to 1.43 IMAX without any major cropping. IIRC you can see in the making of documentary the framing lines when they're shooting the Super 35 arena stuff, it's full frame 1.33 all the way, ergo we're still seeing a crop of that footage to 1.78 on the Blu-ray just as we are on the true 15/70 shots.

[edit] As for BvS, it could've just been my memory playing tricks but in the regular 'scope DCP the 5-perf 65mm shots of Lex seem to have been widened out to use more of the native 2.20 65mm capture, unlike the 15/70 version which had a 1.43 crop of those shots that looked like ass. Makes sense too, as taking the 1.43 crop of the 5/70 and THEN matting it even further for 2.40 seems horribly counter-intuitive to me. Hopefully they'll do a 1.78 crop of the 5/70 shots for the home video version.

[Dubstar]

Originally Posted by UFAlien

Not quite "scope," technically, but IMAX theatres with ratios of 2.00:1 or wider include:

AMC Norwalk 20 (Norwalk, California) - 2.00:1
Carmike Grand Prarie 18 (Peoria, Illinois) - 2.00:1
Regal Sunset Station 13 (Henderson, Nevada) - 2.00:1
Regal Majestic Cinema 20 (Silver Spring, Maryland) - 2.03:1
TCL Chinese Theatre (Los Angeles, California) - 2.04:1
AMC Loews Boston Common 19 (Boston, Massachusetts) - 2.07:1
AMC Empire 25 (New York, New York) - 2.09:1
Cinemark Buckland Hills 18 (Manchester, Connecticut) - 2.09:1
Cinema De Lux City Center 15 (White Plains, New York) - 2.14:1
AMC Columbia 14 (Columbia, Maryland) - 2.17:1

I used to frequent the AMC Loews Boston Common, and their IMAX auditorium always cropped scope films slightly on the sides to fill the screen. Strangely "narrower" films were shown pillarboxed.

this and the IMAX-Digital screen over AMC Rio (Gaithersburg, MD) are a f***king joke - to say they are on the small size in regards to height brilliantly illustrates why some screens should never get the change over to IMAX. Rio once had a great big screen but when they twinned it, the largest screen was history...sad, just sad. The best IMAX-Digital screens are at Hoffman (Alexandria, VA) and Tysons.

In regards to the Majestic - Regal was dumb not to convert it's largest screen in auditorium #1

[UFAlien]

It probably has something to do with the layout of the seating / screen position. Technically, according to LFE's measurements, the Regal Majestic screen is taller than the Hoffman's by four feet (28' versus 32'). But in my experience Regal seating tends to be further away from the screen, at a shallower angle.

I saw something in RPX at the Fenway Regal once, and the seating was so shallow that by the middle rows it just looked like a normal-sized movie screen. If the Majestic IMAX is anything like that I can definitely see it being really underwhelming even if it is technically bigger.

As to the AMC Columbia - out of the 158 theatres in the data set, it's the tenth-smallest.

For the record, the smallest is the AMC Loews Georgetown 14 in Washington, D.C. - it's only 45' x 23'. That's a puny 14% the size of the biggest, the Lincoln Square 13 in NYC.

[antovolk]

Originally Posted by Geoff D

That's not right mate. 4-perf Super 35 has a 1.33 aspect ratio, the entire reason they used Super 35 for the more intense action scenes in CF is because its squarer format translates perfectly to 1.43 IMAX without any major cropping. IIRC you can see in the making of documentary the framing lines when they're shooting the Super 35 arena stuff, it's full frame 1.33 all the way, ergo we're still seeing a crop of that footage to 1.78 on the Blu-ray just as we are on the true 15/70 shots.

[edit] As for BvS, it could've just been my memory playing tricks but in the regular 'scope DCP the 5-perf 65mm shots of Lex seem to have been widened out to use more of the native 2.20 65mm capture, unlike the 15/70 version which had a 1.43 crop of those shots that looked like ass. Makes sense too, as taking the 1.43 crop of the 5/70 and THEN matting it even further for 2.40 seems horribly counter-intuitive to me. Hopefully they'll do a 1.78 crop of the 5/70 shots for the home video version.

Ohhh my bad then, thanks for clarifying:P

[xbs2034]

Originally Posted by UFAlien

Not quite "scope," technically, but IMAX theatres with ratios of 2.00:1 or wider include:

AMC Norwalk 20 (Norwalk, California) - 2.00:1
Carmike Grand Prarie 18 (Peoria, Illinois) - 2.00:1
Regal Sunset Station 13 (Henderson, Nevada) - 2.00:1
Regal Majestic Cinema 20 (Silver Spring, Maryland) - 2.03:1
TCL Chinese Theatre (Los Angeles, California) - 2.04:1
AMC Loews Boston Common 19 (Boston, Massachusetts) - 2.07:1
AMC Empire 25 (New York, New York) - 2.09:1
Cinemark Buckland Hills 18 (Manchester, Connecticut) - 2.09:1
Cinema De Lux City Center 15 (White Plains, New York) - 2.14:1
AMC Columbia 14 (Columbia, Maryland) - 2.17:1

I used to frequent the AMC Loews Boston Common, and their IMAX auditorium always cropped scope films slightly on the sides to fill the screen. Strangely "narrower" films were shown pillarboxed.

AMC Empire 25 always has letterboxing on scope films, as well as aspect ratio expansion on titles like Dark Knight Rises and Batman v Superman. I think 1.85 titles like The Avengers might be shown cropped there though to fill the screen.

But do you know the dimensions of the Kips Bay- as I suspect it is closer to a scope screen with Deadpool basically filling the screen, and I noticed no Aspect Ratio changes on Age of Extinction there (I've only been to the Boston Common IMAX once and honestly can't remember how it was presented).

Also kinda surprised that Cinema De Lux in White Plains is that wide as it was originally a 15/70 screen (saw Harry Potter 5 and I Am Legend there, which were 15/70 only releases predating the start digital IMAX with Speed Racer) albeit more in common size wise with the locations designed for digital IMAX.

[UFAlien]

There were multiplex conversions done before IMAX Digital with the "MPX" system. It was introduced in 2004 and was a placeholder for the digital system which wasn't fully developed yet. It was a smaller film projector with a wider ratio. So presumably the reason it's so wide at Cinema De Lux is because it wasn't an IMAX-built screen, just a converted multiplex auditorium - even though it was showing 70mm IMAX film.

Unfortunately LFE doesn't have measurements for Kips Bay.

[dvdmike]

Originally Posted by UFAlien

Thousands is something of an exaggeration. There are just over 1,000 IMAX theatres total worldwide. But yes, as someone previously mentioned, it's highly likely a higher percentage of international screens are in wider ratios because of how recent and rapid the overseas expansion has been.

It was a total exaggeration to highlight that many people on this board forget there is a world outside the USA at times

[Rodney-2187]

Saw Captain America: Civil War at a Dolby Cinema @ AMC Prime theater. The entire theater has been renovated, but only one screen was converted to the Dolby Cinema @ AMC Prime. The screen was big, and the recliners were nice, but nothing I haven't experienced before. As for the sound, I have never experienced sound like this in a movie theater. I don't mean it was just loud. Don't get me wrong, it was loud. Explosions vibrated my seat. It was quality sound coming from every angle. I felt like the Avengers were fighting around me. I wish I has seen The Force Awakens in this theater! Only a few around the country. If there is one near you, check it out.

https://www.amctheatres.com/dolby

[Dubstar]

Originally Posted by rodneyfaile

Saw Captain America: Civil War at a Dolby Cinema @ AMC Prime theater. The entire theater has been renovated, but only one screen was converted to the Dolby Cinema @ AMC Prime. The screen was big, and the recliners were nice, but nothing I haven't experienced before. As for the sound, I have never experienced sound like this in a movie theater. I don't mean it was just loud. Don't get me wrong, it was loud. Explosions vibrated my seat. It was quality sound coming from every angle. I felt like the Avengers were fighting around me. I wish I has seen The Force Awakens in this theater! Only a few around the country. If there is one near you, check it out.

https://www.amctheatres.com/dolby

what theater did you go to? ... I personally can't stand the whole vibrating seat thing, I find it highly annoying and distracting. I'll take IMAX-laser over Dolby Cinema any day of the week.

[Spike M.]

Did anyone else think the sound mix for Civil War, at least in IMAX, was crazy bad? Action was typically loud for IMAX, but a ton of the dialogue was way quiet, like, people near me asking their friends to repeat lines of dialogue quiet. It didn't seem like a sound system probably either, since the trailer's played as strong as ever.

[Arawn]

^ My thoughts exactly ( but I didn't see it in IMAX ). I actually thought about asking an employee if they could turn up the volume, but I didn't want to miss any of the movie.

I've noticed this in a bunch of movies recently, where the trailers are louder than the movie. It sucks.

[Spike M.]

Originally Posted by Arawn

^ My thoughts exactly ( but I didn't see it in IMAX ). I actually thought about asking an employee if they could turn up the volume, but I didn't want to miss any of the movie.

I've noticed this in a bunch of movies recently, where the trailers are louder than the movie. It sucks.

It's becoming increasingly common in theaters. Saw Green Room the other day and could barely make out any of the dialogue. I'm assuming it's because the "projectionist" is either leaving the volume at a fixed level (would explain why some auditoriums are too loud, too) for every movie, or they're setting volume to a loud scene (in the case of Green Room, a metal song, War, an action scene) instead of a dialogue scene.

The annoying part is that the "guide" to volume is stunningly simple: find a neutral dialogue scene, set the volume to a level that properly fills the room while considering the extra absorption of having two to four hundred bodies in the seats, and then trust the room's EQ and the filmmakers to deliver the loud spots how they intend.