(Updated 06/01/2024)
Ever since THE DARK KNIGHT gave audiences a taste of a superhero movie with footage filmed for a larger-than-usual format, the IMAX brand has moved out of museums and into the multiplex. Now if you want to see a movie with IMAX footage, you can look to titles like NOPE, OPPENHEIMER, DUNE PART TWO, THE BLUE ANGELS, and the upcoming JOKER: FOLIE À DEUX.
Even more movies are formatted for IMAX, so that there's a new IMAX movie in theaters multiple times a year. If you're looking for IMAX movie showtimes and other info about seeing IMAX movies, we're here to help!
A Brief History of IMAX
IMAX was born in the 1970s. The company develops both theater technology and film-capture systems. A movie might be created with IMAX cameras. Christopher Nolan uses these extensively, as does DUNE director Denis Villeneuve. Even movies filmed for IMAX can be projected in a non-IMAX theater.
A few IMAX theaters offer 70mm film projection, which can create an amazing viewing experience. (This was positioned as the ideal way to see OPPENHEIMER.) There are only a handful of those theaters in the United States, however. And there are still some IMAX theaters at museums which offer large-format film projection but do not show commercially-released movies.
New IMAX Movies This Summer
These new movies will play on IMAX screens at participating Cinemark theaters.
Inside Out 2
The little voices inside Riley’s head know her inside and out—but next summer, everything changes when Disney and Pixar’s “Inside Out 2” introduces a new Emotion: Anxiety. According to director Kelsey Mann, the new character promises to stir things up within headquarters. “Anxiety, voiced by Maya Hawke, might be new to the crew, but she’s not really the type to take a back seat,” said Mann. “That makes a lot of sense if you think about it in terms of what goes on inside all our minds.” A trailer, poster and film stills are now available for what promises to be the feel-good (or feel-everything) film of Summer 2024. Disney and Pixar’s “Inside Out 2” returns to the mind of newly minted teenager Riley just as headquarters is undergoing a sudden demolition to make room for something entirely unexpected: new Emotions! Joy, Sadness, Anger, Fear and Disgust, who’ve long been running a successful operation by all accounts, aren’t sure how to feel when Anxiety shows up. And it looks like she’s not alone. [Now Playing]
A Quiet Place: Day One
Experience the day the world went quiet. Lupita Nyong’o, Joseph Quinn, Alex Wolff and Djimon Hounsou star in the movie that explores what happened in New York City when the QUIET PLACE aliens first arrived — and offers a startling POV on how the world changed forever. [June 28]
Despicable Me 4
In the first DESPICABLE ME movie in seven years, Gru, the world’s favorite supervillain- turned-Anti-Villain League-agent, returns for a bold new era of Minions mayhem. Gru and Lucy and their girls — Margo, Edith and Agnes — welcome a new member to the Gru family, Gru Jr., who is intent on tormenting his dad. Gru faces a new nemesis in Maxime Le Mal and his femme fatale girlfriend Valentina, and the family is forced to go on the run. [July 3]
Deadpool & Wolverine
Deadpool's peaceful existence comes crashing down when the Time Variance Authority recruits him to help safeguard the multiverse. [July 26]
Why Doesn't Every Movie Use IMAX?
IMAX cameras create amazing images but they can be bulky and expensive. The film-based IMAX cameras, which Christopher Nolan prefers, are also quite loud, which has always made them difficult to use for intimate scenes. New tech was developed to make OPPENHEIMER easier to capture entirely with IMAX film cameras, for example, and perhaps we'll see other filmmakers taking advantage of it.
Find Cinemark IMAX locations by clicking below.
All images courtesy of IMAX.