Keen readers will have noticed a different log-line on this morning’s Black Adam review; Warner Brothers UK not only provided access to The Rock’s new DC superhero movie, but also made it possible for it to be seen to the very best advantage; not only on an IMAX screen, but on a laser IMAX screen, a state-of-the-art cinematic experience launching in Scotland at Cineworld’s Silverburn complex.
How big a screen does it take to platform a big boy like The Rock? Pretty massive, as it turns out; this replaces the previous Superscreen, and looks large enough to make you wonder how they got this huge screen into the cinema. This is a big auditorium, with nearly 500 seats per show, and the picture looks mint by any standards. You only get one shot at seeing your next favourite film, and there’s every chance you’ll get an ideal viewing with 4K laser projection, industry-leading contrast (five times the norm), 100% more brightness than average, and IMAX 12-channel sound, and you’ve got an ideal viewing experience.
With Black Panther: Wakanda Forever and Avatar 2; The Way of Water both due out later this year, it’s a welcome sight to have Cineworld investing in the latest technology; for cinema audiences to recover, it’s going to take some persuasion to get audiences back in that have lost the regular cinema-going habit. The right content in the right cinema should be key to reviving our love of movies; this blog is grateful to Warner Bros UK and Cineworld for providing this top-notch viewing experience, and here’s to the next one! Link below.
Hollywood has always managed to charge more for premium movies. In the silent days, whoever got a movie first charged more. In the 1950s it was Cinerama and Scope, in the 1960s 70mm, in the 1980s/2010s restorations with orchestras, in the 1990s Imax was the key to selling reissues before it branched into new releases. All worked at the time because audiences have craved new and bigger experiences. I’ll go if the timings suit.
It’s a better experience, and I think it’s ok to charge more for it. As I noted, you only get one first viewing of a great movie…
People must be responding to the idea of a better experience otherwise the VIP screens would not be doing so well.
Depends if you get a comically big ticket – like those big cheques they do at charity events on TV – when you book your seats.
I like IMAX. I saw the Polar Express and the first Transformers movie in IMAX. It’s very vein, but it is also very cool.
IMAX tickets should be A1 sized and have to be carried around in portfolio cases like art school work! Big format= big ticket!
Any movie that becomes available in Imax, we most always see it as such. We love the format. Imax 3D’s quality to me really depends on the movie itself. Not so keen on 3D anymore, but Imax? Yes, please.
Same here. IMAX is always first choice when available. And this new laser IMAX is very sharp…
I’m in complete agreement. IMAX yes. 3D – eh. I’m just thrilled to hear that they are investing in new technology, which means they haven’t given up yet on the cinema experience. Watching from home is great, but it will never match the immersive and lovely experience that is sitting in a dark room with strangers watching larger than life characters on a screen…..! Hurray!
And I love to hear the sound I heard on Thursday, of laughter in the auditorium. Gives you a feeling you can never get at home…
Yes! I don’t have a word to describe that collective experience you get watching with others
Community?
Yes, I suppose we should just keep it simple!
Intellectually I agree with Alex, but in reality I’m with Booky. I have no liking for cinemas.
Sigh. But you’ve got a big screen at home, right? For a teenager, cinema should always be a place of dreams and wonder, and IMAx helps that along…
Yes we’ve got a big screen and planning on a bigger one eventually so I do get it what you’re saying. Do teenagers go to the cinema these days?
I’m glad if you’re glad. And something like this is what cinemas have to try and do to get audiences back. That’s been the rationale behind 3-D every time they try to resurrect it. I still have concerns though.
(1) Does the big screen come with big ticket prices? Cinemas have been pricing themselves out of the market for a while now.
(2) What kind of movies do you really need to see in such a format? IMAX was built for movies (nature documentaries originally) that needed that big screen. For today’s movies . . . Black Adam, Black Panther, the new Avatar. Superhero movies. I guess Kong and Godzilla belong up there too. But would The Banshees of Inisherin been better seen this way? He’s Watching? Given that this is the kind of thing studios have been betting on for years now to gets bums in seat, this just seems another way to go even bigger. But that hasn’t led to better movies. In fact, it’s given us a lot of standardization in how blockbusters are supposed to look. I imagine if you’re going to such a cinema you’re going to want to see a movie that splashes a whole lot of money up on the screen, and I feel like that’s been every big-budget studio hit in the twenty-first century.
I take your points; I think cinema is pretty cheap for a medium that people love, compared to live gigs (£300+ for a Bruce Sprinsteen ticket, or more for a Broadway show). As I said, you get one shot at seeing something on the big screen. We’ve just seen in the lull of big releases that without the tentpoles, the little fish aren’t big enough to sustain audiences. So yes, let’s start at the top, we need big movies, otherwise small movies can’t survive. IMAX looks great, like the cinema did when you were small; you leave pummelled, weak at the knees. So it only works for huge movies, your Mission Impossibles and the like. But we need to keep the top end working, but cinema is one place where trickle down economics can and should work.
I got nothing, sorry.
That’s ok, big screens are a big deal for the likes of me!
I can rejoice with those who rejoice 🙂
That’s the spirit!
Me too