Worse than Ben Lyons - IMAX

Aziz Ansari from the show Parks and Recreation has posted a comment on his blog that has caused quite a stir regarding fake IMAX screenings. That is, screenings advertised as IMAX that are less than what we have come to know as the full IMAX experience, but charging the extra 5 bucks anyway. The IMAX CEO has even felt it necessary to respond to Ansari's blog, although fairly ineloquently.

You may remember a similar discussion on Ebert's blog a few months ago, starting with this letter, followed by this one and this one.You might also remember my rant against AMCHD--note that Ansari is also complaining about AMC, but attacks their theaters and not their cable TV channel.

Here is Ansari's blog posting:

REBLOG THE FUCK OUT OF THIS. WARNING: AMC theaters are running FAKE IMAX's and charging $5 extra for a slightly bigger screen. Boycott IMAX, AMC, and Regal. Don't let them fool you.

I went with a friend of mine to see Star Trek: The IMAX Experience at the AMC Theatre in Burbank today. I drove out of my way to see the film on the large IMAX screen and paid an extra $5 for the ticket, which felt worth it at the time.

HOWEVER, we get in the theatre and its just a slightly bigger than normal screen and NOT the usual standard huge 72 ft IMAX screen. I was very upset and apparently this problem is happening all over at Regal and AMC theatres. Here’s a graphic representation of what’s happening at these “FAKE IMAX” screens:


If you don’t want the whole long story, I did some research online and found this article that explains it. Basically IMAX is whoring out their brand name and trying to trick people. These new “IMAX” theatres are really just nice digital screens with good sound, but they ARE NOT IMAX, in that they don’t have the huge 72 ft gigantic screen which people would expect. However, they still charge $5 more for tickets as they would for the regular IMAX.

REGAL, AMC, AND IMAX - YOU ARE LIARS!


Read the rest of the post here