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Topic: 300 to be next DMR

Bobby Henderson
"Ask me about Trajan."

Posts: 10973
From: Lawton, OK, USA
Registered: Apr 2001

posted 03-08-2007 08:25 PM

quote: Mark Lensenmayer
I've only seen trailers for 15/70 films on IMAX movies. Sure got sick of seeing YOUNG BLACK STALLION in the old days, and can't tell you how many times I saw the HAPPY FEET trailer recently.

When I watched the "IMAX" version of Superman Returns at Cinemark Carefree Circle in Colorado Springs, it had a Happy Feet trailer on it in 3D. I thought that was ultimately funny since the movie itself ended up not being 3D. Open Season did, however.

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Mark Strube
Master Film Handler

Posts: 322
From: Milwaukee, WI, United States
Registered: Feb 2007

posted 03-09-2007 03:52 AM

Thanks for the info! I haven't been to an IMAX movie in so long... our local Milwaukee one is in a public museum, and is the dome style... since it's in a museum they won't show anything above PG, I believe, so no 300. I do think I remember them showing one of the Harry Potter movies, however. (I'm going to Madison for 300 with a large group of friends.)

If I'm remembering correctly (I was quite young), I think they did something before the movie where they brought the lights up behind the screen to show off the sound system. Does that sound familiar at all?

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Brian Michael Weidemann
Expert cat molester

Posts: 944
From: Costa Mesa, CA United States
Registered: Feb 2004

posted 03-09-2007 10:41 AM

Different theatres have different pre-show routines. We used to have lighting rigged behind the screen for that purpose, but they've been long since pulled out.

Our "300" plays with only the Spidey 3 (teaser) trailer, with the "in IMAX" card spliced in where it used to say "next Summer". Our preshow consists of the audience staring at our screen until the show starts. Our screen currently displays the "300" logo, via our spotlight gobo. After a kick-ass introduction announcement spiel recording (by yours truly) over a music track from the film, the lights dim and the trailer plays, followed by the feature. It's awesome.

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Michael Coate
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1904
From: Los Angeles, California
Registered: Feb 2001

posted 03-09-2007 02:31 PM

It looks like the final tally for domestic bookings has topped 60. My post from Page 2 of this thread has been updated.

I'm surprised to read that a "Harry Potter" trailer wasn't sent with the prints of "300." I predict there'll be one before the "300" run ends.

When I saw "Superman Returns" in IMAX at The Bridge: Cinema de Lux (and, yeah, I agree it looked crappy), there were three trailers: "The Ant Bully," "Happy Feet" and "Open Season."

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Brian Michael Weidemann
Expert cat molester

Posts: 944
From: Costa Mesa, CA United States
Registered: Feb 2004

posted 03-09-2007 03:17 PM

Harry Potter 5 trailers do exist, but apparently in very limited quantities. We don't have one ... yet. Usually we get an important trailer like that delivered a week after opening the film it's absolutely supposed to be attached to, with some top priority "add this NOW" kind of note. You can't just drop in an IMAX trailer between showtimes. [Mad]

It would have been great to receive it with the print.

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Mark Strube
Master Film Handler

Posts: 322
From: Milwaukee, WI, United States
Registered: Feb 2007

posted 03-10-2007 11:09 PM

I saw this tonight on the IMAX in Fitchburg, WI, which is owned by Star Cinema... it's the flat style, not dome. No complaints about the picture quality, it looked great, but there were 2 other issues. 1. The ceiling light in the projection booth had an area of 2-3 seats (we were in the 2nd to last row) where the light completely shines through. A friend and I had light shining on our arms and torsos through the whole movie, and I could kind of see it out of the corner of my eye. That really takes you out of the "IMAX" experience. Is this common? It seems like something they should account for if they must leave the light turned on in the booth.
2. Where's the low end? I didn't hear it, my friends didn't hear it. If it wasn't for two slight very low rumbles, I'd think they have no subs at all. It was ridiculous, even the "earthquake" scene had no punch, and the Spidey 3 IMAX teaser didn't have much (if any) LFE action either... and I know what that trailer is supposed to sound like. Could this have something to do with our seating position? The sound level seemed rather low, too... some of the quieter speaking scenes, you were almost stressing to hear what they were saying. That's not what I think IMAX should be about... mild sound.

Any thoughts?

Oh, and does anyone know which format of IMAX the screen at Navy Pier in Chicago is? Would this movie lends itself well to a dome style?

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Dick Vaughan
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1032
From: Bradford, West Yorkshire, UK
Registered: Jul 2000

posted 03-11-2007 05:59 AM

Navy Pier is a flat screen 3D, Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago is a dome .

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Bobby Henderson
"Ask me about Trajan."

Posts: 10973
From: Lawton, OK, USA
Registered: Apr 2001

posted 03-11-2007 07:54 PM

The opening weekend numbers for 300 are pretty interesting. The movie opened with an estimated opening weekend gross of $70 million.

Spread across 3103 movie screens, the estimated average is $22,500 per theater. The 60 or so IMAX theaters playing the DMR version took in $3.1 million. That's over $55,000 per screen. Not bad at all. That will probably encourage even more DMR treatments. Too bad it may not encourage some actual 5/65 or 15/65 production.

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Scott Jentsch
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1061
From: New Berlin, WI, USA
Registered: Apr 2003

posted 03-16-2007 09:26 AM

quote: Mark Strube
Would this movie lends itself well to a dome style?

The only movies that lend themselves well to being watched in a dome are the ones that were shot intended to be projected in a dome. Everything else is a distorted mess. Some people don't seem to mind seeing a movie image warped across the inside of a sphere, but for the same reason that I don't stretch 1.33:1 content to fit a 1.78:1 screen at home, I don't watch movies projected at the Humphrey IMAX Dome in Milwaukee.

I did a search on the IMDb, and found that 16 titles were filmed using the Omnimax format (the one intended for dome viewing):

Back to the Future... The Ride (1991 short)
Star Trek the Experience: The Klingon Encounter (1998 short)
Africa: The Serengeti (1994 documentary short)
Dolphins (2000 documentary short)
Soarin' Over California (2001 documentary short)
Genesis (1978 documentary short)
The Magic Egg (1984 documentary short)
J'écris dans l'espace (1989 documentary)
Rivers of North America (1976 documentary short)
Atmos (1980 documentary short)
We Are Born of Stars (1985 documentary short)
Standing Up Country (1973 documentary short)
Capture the Sun (1973 documentary)
Garden Isle (1973 documentary short)
A Freedom to Move (1985 documentary short)
Omninews (1985 documentary)

I've enjoyed Africa: The Serengeti on the dome (from what I recall), and I've really enjoyed seeing the flat IMAX films projected onto a flat IMAX screen, but after watching Mission to Mir on the IMAX Dome, I'll never see another IMAX movie shown on a dome again.
I can't imagine how bad a DMR movie might look on a dome. I certainly am not going to pay $8 to find out.

It would be interesting to know if a movie could be manipulated with a fisheye effect in the digital post-processing stage so that the spherical distortion of a dome could be accounted for, and then a print struck with that distortion in place. Theoretically, the image should look better than a non-manipulated image. The small number of dome installations probably would make such an effort impractical, though...

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Jeffry L. Johnson
Jedi Master Film Handler

Posts: 809
From: Cleveland, Ohio, USA
Registered: Apr 2000

posted 03-16-2007 10:59 AM

Space Station (2002) has dome prints. Only certain sequences were converted for dome prints.

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Joseph L. Kleiman
Master Film Handler

Posts: 380
From: Sacramento, CA
Registered: Apr 2005

posted 03-16-2007 05:26 PM

Magnificent Desolation has a dome print with certain images modified to work on a dome screen. It actually works very well.

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Mark Lensenmayer
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1605
From: Upper Arlington, OH
Registered: Sep 1999

posted 03-16-2007 06:33 PM

HAIL, COLUMBIA had different versions for dome and flat, if I recall correctly from many years ago. I saw both in a relatively short time, and I remember some definite differences.

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Jeffry L. Johnson
Jedi Master Film Handler

Posts: 809
From: Cleveland, Ohio, USA
Registered: Apr 2000

posted 03-17-2007 09:08 AM

My print of Dolphins is IMAX format, not a dome version.

in70mm.com IMAX

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Mike Perju
Film Handler

Posts: 90
From: Toronto, Canada
Registered: Nov 2002

posted 03-20-2007 03:53 PM

Two weeks on and 300 is practically still selling out during weeknight shows.

This DMR title is clean and sharp... a little too sharp for the quality of CGI used in production.

Less can be said for the Spiderman 3 trailer attached at the beginnig! The DMR process tore apart the CGI in that film, making it look horrible! I won't even mention the terrible artifacting in the whites :-(

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Joseph L. Kleiman
Master Film Handler

Posts: 380
From: Sacramento, CA
Registered: Apr 2005

posted 03-20-2007 05:07 PM

And to think it only took 10 days to DMR the entire film. Boy has this technology really advanced!

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