This is topic Carmike opens New Imax today ? in forum Film-Yak at Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE.


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Posted by Steve Matz (Member # 1890) on 12-05-2015, 01:06 AM:
 
I thought IMAX meant you were not only going to have a much wider picture but also the height would be way up there also. Another Bogus Carmike Fraud; People that have seen True Imax Theaters will be rolling their eyes at this!

http://billingsgazette.com/entertainment/movies/carmike-opens-new-in-your-face-imax-friday/article_068a3e75-7701-5c3b-80c9-44a96ea47ef3.html
 

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Posted by Brad Miller (Member # 2) on 12-05-2015, 02:56 AM:
 
Judging by that picture, the image is roughly 50 feet wide and nowhere near a proper 2.40:1 aspect ratio for scope. What's interesting is that IMAX has always been about height with their almost-square image. Now they appear to be cropping the height of the scope image (if that picture is indeed accurate and not photoshopped).
 

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Posted by Steve Matz (Member # 1890) on 12-05-2015, 12:18 PM:
 
Not Photoshopped, That's the Theater. Any Idiot that would pay another 8 dollars to watch a 3-D film there is the same Duh that pays 13 dollars for a Medium Popcorn and Coke.
 

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Posted by Bill Brandenstein (Member # 7758) on 12-05-2015, 07:39 PM:
 
There's something wrong with that photo - just look at the presumed scope ratio of the screen and then the Mockingjay image on it is still letterboxed. So the image is stretched horizontally, meaning the normal Liemax 1.85:1 is in use.
 

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Posted by Martin McCaffery (Member # 37) on 12-05-2015, 08:03 PM:
 
I hope those stairs don't really light up like that.
 

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Posted by Bill Brandenstein (Member # 7758) on 12-05-2015, 10:12 PM:
 
Pity that it's not 4K laser.
 

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Posted by Bobby Henderson (Member # 840) on 12-05-2015, 11:39 PM:
 
Wow, what a sham! But then wasn't this a conversion job done on an existing theater screen rather than something built entirely brand new? It looks like there's no more than maybe 150 seats in that modest sized room.

Edit: reading further into the article, this theater has 311 seats and was a former "Big D" house.

I have plenty of complaints about IMAX Digital, but at least the IMAX branded house they have at the new Carmike recently opened here in Lawton is pretty big, and even boating a significantly higher than usual seating capacity for IMAX labeled houses, nearly 600 seats. That's roughly the same as the Moore Warren IMAX, which is one of the biggest IMAX digital houses in operation. The screen is still rectangular though, not the square-ish shape of a true 15-perf 70mm film based IMAX theater.

quote: Bill Brandenstein

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Pity that it's not 4K laser.

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For the ticket price being charged it's a shame IMAX isn't converting ALL of its 2K HDTV resolution screens to dual 4K laser. The new one here in my town has the old 2K variety of projectors (and a lot of old Doremi servers for the standard priced screens too).
 

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Posted by Steve Matz (Member # 1890) on 12-06-2015, 12:20 AM:
 
I don't know what this outfit is thinking. For that Screen Height,they could have used their old Vacant 3 plex theater that is only a 100 or so yards away from Shiloh 16 and probably had double the seating capacity. The way they talked at the beginning of this project in the summer was that the Screen would dwarf the Big-D Theater...Yeah Right !
 

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Posted by Bobby Henderson (Member # 840) on 12-06-2015, 05:18 PM:
 
This conversion job reminds me of comedian Aziz Ansari's blog post about Lie-MAX:
http://azizisbored.tumblr.com/post/106587114

That post got quite a bit of publicity. But apparently IMAX, Carmike and others involved this conversion job just don't care. A regular sized movie theater screen bearing an IMAX label and IMAX ticket price is a big middle finger to customers. Not cool at all.
 

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Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 12-06-2015, 10:10 PM:
 
No - it's a big cash vacuum, which is why they do it.
 

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Posted by James Westbrook (Member # 3690) on 12-07-2015, 01:04 AM:
 
I just reblogged it on one of my tumblr's, the post regarding Lie-Max. Which is like pissing myself while wearing black slacks, nice warm feeling but no one notices. My followers don't go to many movies anyway...
 

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Posted by Jonathan Goeldner (Member # 4854) on 12-07-2015, 08:50 AM:
 
sorry for being negatory - but you convert a former prime auditorium to IMAX which seals you into a deal with what IMAX distributes/releases - and not just pony up to invest/install a 4K DLP (or laser) system and Atmos instead? that's kind of dumb.
 

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Posted by Chris Haller (Member # 9206) on 12-07-2015, 10:23 AM:
 
I imagine its because of the IMAX brand name more than anything else. Movie goers in my area don't care that they're going to see 2K 3D projection and limited content, they want the "IMAX experience."
 

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Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 12-07-2015, 10:51 AM:
 

quote: Steve Matz

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The way they talked at the beginning of this project in the summer was that the Screen would dwarf the Big-D Theater...Yeah Right

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They never said anything about the size of the screen or the auditorium in the articles I've read, only that the screen would be floor-to-ceiling. From the looks of this the screen is the same, they just changed out the projection and sound. In other words a typical "LieMax."
 

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Posted by Bobby Henderson (Member # 840) on 12-07-2015, 11:37 AM:
 
Typical "Lie-MAX" but there's no lie about the IMAX-sized ticket price.

Here is a visual comparison of the new IMAX branded screen in Billings versus the one Carmike opened last month in Lawton. The top image is of the Billings screen and the second one is a kind of bad smart phone image I snapped at the Lawton location.



The news article says the Billings theater has 311 seats. The one is Lawton has 598 seats (I want to confirm that on another visit because it could actually have more). Both theaters are charging in the same price range, yet one auditorium is much bigger than the other one. Through marketing we're led to believe all IMAX theaters are the same (same booth hardware, same huge screen, better presentation than anyone else can deliver, etc.) when you enter the auditorium you'll find out you paid for something different.
 

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Posted by Bobby Henderson (Member # 840) on 12-07-2015, 01:51 PM:
 

quote: Martin McCaffery

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I hope those stairs don't really light up like that.

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There's lots of blue LEDs all over the place inside those rooms, but thankfully most are turned off or turned down really low during the feature.
 

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Posted by Scott Jentsch (Member # 1681) on 12-08-2015, 05:13 PM:
 
Based upon the 2.4:1 trailer that is on YouTube, it doesn't look like the image in the photo that the Billings Gazette took is cropped.

YouTube Video - linked to that frame of the trailer

Using that 2.4:1 image as a basis, I estimate that screen to be approximately 2:1. It looks to be about 48' if I'm counting ceiling tiles well enough, which would make the projected image 20' high and the total screen height about 24'.

Oddly enough, when the BigD auditorium opened in 2011, they said that it was 62' wide. Did they make shrink it?

To twist that knife a little more, they are charging more for the IMAX screen than the BigD screen, according to Fandango. I think the ticket pricing on Carmike's page for the BigD is still from before the IMAX opening (no IMAX pricing is there), and they list the BigD evening show as being $12.75, and the IMAX shows as being $15.50 for a Tuesday evening show. They are looking for even more on the weekend, and a Friday 11:10pm show of Star Wars is $20.25!
 

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Posted by Buck Wilson (Member # 5885) on 12-08-2015, 06:20 PM:
 
Why is everyone asking questions? There's nothing wrong with exhibition and IMAX is always the best.
 

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Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 12-08-2015, 06:27 PM:
 
I'm sure after Star Wars opens we will get comments such as "I saw it in Billings...it was cool but holy crap, the prices!" We get that kind of comments even now, pre-Imax.

My biggest pet peeve is they are hyping it like it's something really special when it's really nothing more than we already offer here, except a bigger screen -- which you can get the same effect by sitting closer here -- at triple the price (for snacks too).

I will concede that their 3-D probably looks better due to the two-projector setup but even so, with the larger picture maybe it's a wash.

Their sound might be impressive but we still have the wood floor, so let's see them top that!

Someday I will see a movie there so I'll withhold further comments till then, I guess.
 

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Posted by Bobby Henderson (Member # 840) on 12-08-2015, 06:44 PM:
 
If that Billings IMAX screen even measures 50' wide I would be surprised. The screen may be a floor to ceiling and wall to wall design (with no masking of course), but the screen's size and scale doesn't look any more impressive than a modest sized theater screen.

quote:

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I think the ticket pricing on Carmike's page for the BigD is still from before the IMAX opening (no IMAX pricing is there), and they list the BigD evening show as being $12.75, and the IMAX shows as being $15.50 for a Tuesday evening show. They are looking for even more on the weekend, and a Friday 11:10pm show of Star Wars is $20.25!

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