IMAX is a proprietary system of high-resolution cameras, film formats, film projectors, and cinemas originally known for having steep stadium seating and very large screens with a tall aspect ratio (about 1.43:1), though many films shot using IMAX cameras are shown in a wider format. Graeme Ferguson, Roman Kroitor, Robert Kerr, and William C. Shaw were the co-founders of what would later be named IMAX Corporation in September 1967, and they developed the first IMAX theatre projection standards in the late 1960s and early 1970s in Canada.
The largest IMAX format, Grand Theater (GT), can show 1.43:1 content on a 1.43:1 screen that is large enough to take up almost all of the audience's vision for an immersive experience. The IMAX 15/70 film format 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.
IMAX is often shown in cinemas built specifically for IMAX to accommodate the taller aspect ratio. The dedicated buildings and projectors require high construction and maintenance costs, and many installations of this type limit themselves to a projection of high-quality, short documentaries. The IMAX SR and MPX systems were introduced in 1998 and 2004, respectively, to make IMAX available to existing film theaters. The SR system featured slightly smaller screens than GT theaters, though still in purpose-built auditoriums with a 1.43:1 aspect ratio. The MPX projectors were solely used to retrofit existing multiplex auditoriums with wider screens, losing much of the quality of the GT experience. IMAX Digital 2K and IMAX with Laser 4K were introduced in 2008 and 2014, respectively. Both technologies are purely digital and suitable to retrofit existing cinemas.
History
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.see 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: Originally published in Take One magazine, Issue #17, Fall 1997.
... the incorporation date [of the company was] September 1967. ... [The name change] 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 the 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, it is, in fact, a made-up word."
IMAX Corporation
Tiger Child, the first IMAX film, was demonstrated at Expo '70 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, an IMAX screen that measured was featured in the 'Environmental Theater' of the US Pavilion, the largest structure in the expo; at the time, it was the largest movie screen in the world. It became the first IMAX Theatre to not be partnered with any other brand of movie theatres. About five million visitors viewed the short film Man Belongs to the Earth. Because the screen covered the viewer's total visual field when looking directly forward, most felt a sensation of motion and some experienced motion sickness.
The large pavilion screen was torn down after the exposition closed and was replaced by a nearby permanent IMAX film theater which opened in 1978 and was demolished in 2018; 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 1978 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 was released in videos featured on Spokane's renovation site, and its budget revealed that seating was 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's Balboa Park in 1973. It doubles as a planetarium theater. The first permanent IMAX 3D theatre was built in Vancouver, British Columbia, for Transitions at Expo '86, and was in use until September 30, 2009. (official site). It was located at the tip of Canada Place, a Vancouver landmark.
Digital projection
In 2008, IMAX expanded its brand into traditional theaters with the introduction of IMAX Digital, a lower-cost system that utilizes two 2K digital projectors to project onto 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 300 screens worldwide at the end of 2007 to over 1,000 screens by the end of 2015. By 2017, there were 1,302 IMAX cinemas 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 cinemas were instead built with significantly smaller screens. These newer film 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.Maintaining The IMAX Experience, From Museum To Multiplex, by Elizabeth Blair (NPR.org, May 2, 2014)
Since 2002, some feature films have been converted into IMAX format for displaying in IMAX cinemas, and some have also been (partially) shot in IMAX. By late 2017, 1,305 IMAX systems were installed in 1,205 commercial multiplex cinemas, 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 process increases the image resolution 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, 65 mm film 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 collaboration with Kodak, Panavision, and FotoKem to develop "a new fleet of next-generation IMAX film cameras", to deploy the first four units in the next two years. Christopher Nolan and Jordan Peele were among a group of advisors, made up of filmmakers and cinematographers, assisting in identifying new specifications and features for the prototype development phase.
In May 2024, an interview with Collider, IMAX CEO Richard Gelfond revealed that four new identical cameras that are 30% quieter than the existing cameras would be made. The Wall Street Journal revealed that the new cameras will be made out of carbon fiber and titanium, and they will feature a five inch color display along with wireless capability. These were introduced as the Keighley IMAX cameras and were named in honor of IMAX's late Chief Quality Officer, David Keighley and his colleague and wife, Patricia.
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 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 (2017), two Arri Alexa IMAX cameras were combined in a rig to provide native 3D, with the film containing 98% of IMAX footage.
IMAX-certified cameras