IMAX: Where Bigger Really is Better

Anyone who has seen a film at an IMAX cinema will have little difficulty recalling the experience. An acronym for Image MAXimum, IMAX cinemas feature the biggest screens in the country. Since 2002, some feature films have been converted (or upgraded) into the format to be screened in IMAX cinemas and some have also been partially shot in IMAX, which means they fill every inch of the screen. IMAX makes the most impactful medium on earth, even more powerful and with films such as last year’s sci-fi stunner, Gravity utilising the country’s biggest screens, it makes for an immersive and thrilling cinema experience.

DCM’s Head of Film, Tom Linay added “IMAX is one of the great innovations that maintains cinema’s position as the best place to watch films. With the world’s biggest filmmakers increasingly shooting their films in the format, it’s an experience that cannot be replicated anywhere else and with arguably 2014’s most exciting film, Interstellar screening in the format, IMAX cinemas will be the place to see it”.

DCM has recently added four new IMAX sites to its portfolio at the Perth Playhouse and Cineworlds in Castleford, Ashton and Stevenage, making a total of 28 screens and an interesting advertising proposition for brands wanting to make the biggest impact you can.  “The IMAX brand and big screen format is perfect for the audience of Perth,” says Ken Creelman of the Perth Playhouse. “And we desired to give the people of Perthshire an exclusive and top class moviegoing experience.”

The next big title set to arrive in IMAX cinemas is Luc Besson’s long-awaited return to sci-fi with action-thriller, Lucy. Scarlett Johansson plays a woman who unwittingly becomes a drug mule. When the package inside her leaks, she begins to unlock the full capacity of her brain, with startling results. It has already been a big hit in the US and the trailer suggests that it delivers on the promise of the setup.

Later in the year Denzel Washington will be delivering brutal vengeance in IMAX in The Equalizer and the astonishing detail of middle earth will be showcased in the final film in The Hobbit trilogy, The Battle of the Five Armies. Perhaps most intriguingly though, anyone looking forward to 2014’s most exciting blockbuster should be planning a visit to their local IMAX cinema in November.

Christopher Nolan has long been a champion of the format, with large sections of both The Dark Knight and The Dark Knight Rises shot with IMAX cameras. With November’s Interstellar, Nolan has once again shot part of the film in IMAX and actually fitted an IMAX camera to the nose-cone of a lear jet for some footage. If you want to see the film as one of the world’s best film-makers intended, then IMAX is the way to go and with more and more screens opening up around the country, it’s never been easier.