WORLD'S BIGGEST IMAX CINEMA (1 Viewer)

Last night I saw SPECTRUM at the Sydney (Australia) Darling Harbour Imax ( world's biggest). The results were extremely disappointing. We had to endure music in the auditorium (during most of the movie) which appeared to have emanated from outside the complex.It was most annoying. I would have thought that the cinema was immune to noise from outside. Darling Harbour is a very busy and noisy area but to have to endure it during the film is another matter. I have never been a fan of digital cinema and rarely go nowadays. SPECTRUM in Imax was the very worst in digital cinema that I have ever experienced. It looked like a blow-up to Imax. A terribly dark picture .It lacked any clarity. If this is the future of Imax then I will give it a miss in future. Imax used to be the best in the world with 70mm projection.Nowadays it is a sham. Has anyone else experienced SPECTRUM in this manner? Imax is definitely not suited to digital.

At the end of every IMAX screening, there is a card that plays at the end of the credits with the email address of the Chief Quality Officer. They invite you to write in about your experience, positive or negative. I would recommend writing to them at that address, which is [email protected].


In my experiences, I have found them to be extremely responsive to my concerns; they've always responded to me in a timely fashion and in a courteous manner. They've given me free passes to make up for the occasional error during a presentation. For example, I saw "Tomorrowland" in IMAX over the summer, and one of the speakers behind the screen was buzzing - it didn't happen every second of the movie, but anytime something on the left side of the screen got loud, you could hear it from my seat. I wrote to them about the problem and they promised they'd look into it. I got an immediate response apologizing for the inconvenience and offering two free passes. I then got a follow-up email a few days later where they took the time to write to me about the issue with that specific speaker, and that they had fixed the issue. Sure enough, when I saw a different movie in that same theater a couple weeks later, the sound was perfect. They didn't have to do any of this. The AMC chain owns the theater, so it was AMC who I paid for the ticket and AMC who would have been the ones obligated to issue a refund. And they certainly didn't have to write back to me with a detailed explanation of the problem and the steps they took to fix it, but they did anyway.


It's that kind of customer service that keeps me returning to IMAX.


Incidentally, my viewing of "Spectre" at the AMC Lincoln Square IMAX, which is the largest screen in North America, was fine.

Spectrum?

This topic should be in the "Movies" forum.

Josh Steinberg said:

At the end of every IMAX screening, there is a card that plays at the end of the credits with the email address of the Chief Quality Officer. They invite you to write in about your experience, positive or negative. I would recommend writing to them at that address, which is [email protected].


In my experiences, I have found them to be extremely responsive to my concerns; they've always responded to me in a timely fashion and in a courteous manner. They've given me free passes to make up for the occasional error during a presentation. For example, I saw "Tomorrowland" in IMAX over the summer, and one of the speakers behind the screen was buzzing - it didn't happen every second of the movie, but anytime something on the left side of the screen got loud, you could hear it from my seat. I wrote to them about the problem and they promised they'd look into it. I got an immediate response apologizing for the inconvenience and offering two free passes. I then got a follow-up email a few days later where they took the time to write to me about the issue with that specific speaker, and that they had fixed the issue. Sure enough, when I saw a different movie in that same theater a couple weeks later, the sound was perfect. They didn't have to do any of this. The AMC chain owns the theater, so it was AMC who I paid for the ticket and AMC who would have been the ones obligated to issue a refund. And they certainly didn't have to write back to me with a detailed explanation of the problem and the steps they took to fix it, but they did anyway.


It's that kind of customer service that keeps me returning to IMAX.


Incidentally, my viewing of "Spectre" at the AMC Lincoln Square IMAX, which is the largest screen in North America, was fine.

Click to expand...

I helped open Lincoln Square theatres when it was Sony theatres. Do they still have the helmet with the 3d shutter and speaker's built in. We had a dishwasher we put them in after each show. And most every show someone would try to take one home,but they had a hidden tag that set the alarm off.

First place in the world to have this.

Everett Stallings said:

I helped open Lincoln Square theatres when it was Sony theatres. Do they still have the helmet with the 3d shutter and speaker's built in.

Click to expand...

I remember visiting the theater back in the day and wearing those glasses. They haven't been used since the 1990s I believe. Definitely not since the modern era of blowing up Hollywood films for IMAX which started in the early 2000s. IMAX now uses passive linear polarization for their 3D presentations.

It's nice to hear that the people at IMAX are kind and receptive, and they seem to genuinely believe that they are heading in a positive direction. That said, I have been lucky enough to see plenty of 15/70 IMAX screenings at the aforementioned AMC Loews Lincoln Square 13, and that blows digital away, including digital IMAX blowups at the same theater. I was extremely disappointed to see that the 15/70 projector isn't being re-installed for the new Star Wars film, which has 15/70-shot footage in it. That was a huge part of the minimal appeal that this film has for me, considering that I don't like the prequels, the special editions, or most films from J.J. Abrams. But a 2D 15/70 print screening would have been enough impetus for me to make the trip into New York City to see it. I know there are a handful that will get the prints, but really, to me there is little point in going to any other IMAX theater when the biggest one in the country is a trip away, and well worth some ground traveling expenses.


I am all for IMAX creating a digital counterpart which is easier to use and far less costly to export to the screen, but I think it's really despicable how they are abandoning 15/70 prints and screenings for the few big projects that use them. Just as 35mm film is still available for shooting to most filmmakers, I think that IMAX should take a similar route, and make 15/70 prints and projection available on its biggest and best IMAX screens for all filmmakers that have the budget to shoot with the 15/70 film stock.


And most importantly, I think that they need to alter all their digital screens and projection to be called IMAX Digital, and not IMAX. Regardless of whether the averge person conflates the two (and they do), the mere fact that the current branding implies that IMAX Digital and true IMAX (15/70 film) are one and the same is really disappointing, especially considering that even the dome theaters are known as OMNIMAX. You would think at the very least IMAX could respect their history, and the fact that they were once purveyors of the best film experience in the modern era.


Hopefully, one day soon, someone at the IMAX Corporation gets some sense, and stops trying to re-write history.

"Disappointed" doesn't begin to cover how I feel about Star Wars at Lincoln Square.

They've been promising the new laser projection system was coming to Lincoln, which would fill the screen in the same way as the 15/70, but over a year of "soon" and nothing's happened yet. North America's largest screen should ideally be capable of showing both 4K laser and 15/70, instead of just DLP.

cinemiracle said:

Last night I saw SPECTRUM at the Sydney (Australia) Darling Harbour Imax ( world's biggest). The results were extremely disappointing. We had to endure music in the auditorium (during most of the movie) which appeared to have emanated from outside the complex.It was most annoying. I would have thought that the cinema was immune to noise from outside. Darling Harbour is a very busy and noisy area but to have to endure it during the film is another matter. I have never been a fan of digital cinema and rarely go nowadays. SPECTRUM in Imax was the very worst in digital cinema that I have ever experienced. It looked like a blow-up to Imax. A terribly dark picture .It lacked any clarity. If this is the future of Imax then I will give it a miss in future. Imax used to be the best in the world with 70mm projection.Nowadays it is a sham. Has anyone else experienced SPECTRUM in this manner? Imax is definitely not suited to digital.

Click to expand...

Forgot to say that they charge $A35 a ticket which is very high.Is there another Imax which charges more?

That's about the equivalent of what they charge in NYC.

Sydney's new Imax cinema is said to become the world's biggest when it opens. The previous one on the same site (also was the world's biggest) closed for redevelopment and the new Imax will be incorporated into a huge complex and hotel. The Imax was supposed to open in September this year but this may be delayed as the construction company has gone into liquidation. This has affected about 19 construction sites in Australia.