Imax Experience Many Theater Chains Are Including 3-D Screens In Their Multiplexes To Give Moviegoers A New And Exciting Viewing Venue

Those eye-popping IMAX movies soon could be coming to your local multiplex.

For 30 years the large-screen movie process has been limited to science museums, zoos and other tourist destinations, its output confined to documentaries about nature, history and technology.

Soon, however, moviegoers in several cities will have to decide whether to pay standard ticket prices to see a studio release on a regular screen or, for a dollar more, go down the corridor to take in a 40-minute IMAX film like the forthcoming “T. Rex,” which features towering computer-animated dinosaurs presented in startlingly realistic 3-D.

The creators of big-big-screen technology have been busily signing deals with theater chains to include 3-D IMAX screens in their new multiplexes. Among the participating chains are industry giant Regal Theaters, Edwards Theaters on the West Coast and Texas-based CineMark.

So far nearly 40 of these purely commercial IMAX outlets - about a fifth of all existing IMAX theaters in the United States - are up and running, and dozens more are on the way.

By early next century, IMAX officials say, virtually every major metropolitan area will have a commercial IMAX screen in addition to whatever educational screens already exist.

“Everybody in exhibition is looking for an edge,” said Brian Weisfeld, managing director of IMAX Theatres and Communications, in a recent telephone conversation from IMAX headquarters in Toronto. “How can you entice a consumer to drive an extra 10 minutes to come to your theater when audiences are becoming accustomed to stadium seating and digital sound?

“IMAX helps you do that. Our theaters - especially the 3-D theaters - help give multiplexes a sexy connotation. For an IMAX experience, people routinely will drive for an hour.”

Most of the new commercial IMAX screens are in what IMAX calls its 3D/SR system, which features 3-D projection in an auditorium about half the size of a conventional IMAX facility. The audience wears helmets with liquid crystal lenses for each eye and stereo headphones.

IMAX may attract commercial exhibitors for other reasons. Because most IMAX films are viewed as educational experiences, they generate income from school groups during hours when commercial theaters are least busy.

That may prove a thorny point. Weisfeld said most IMAX films will continue to contain a strong educational element so that they also can be shown at institutional IMAX theaters.

“I don’t think you’ll see us doing anything that isn’t appropriate for a museum experience,” he said. “It will still be wholesome family fare. You won’t see us playing an IMAX version of ‘Mortal Kombat.”’

But the challenge of being educational and entertaining concerns Oscar-winning filmmaker Kieth Merrill - director of such IMAX titles as “The Alamo: The Price of Freedom” and “The Ozarks: Legend and Legacy.”

Like most makers of IMAX movies, Merrill rents the cameras and technology from IMAX but must find his own financing. While he’s enthusiastic about the artistic possibilities of the big-screen format, he says he’s nervous about the economics.

“With few exceptions, no one has had the courage to produce a purely commercial large-format film,” Merrill said by phone from his California office. “You still have to accommodate the science/education market, because that’s where most of the screens are.

“When you put an IMAX film in a commercial multiplex and you can only spend $6 million on it, you’re at a disadvantage. No matter how well it’s been conceived and executed, it’s still competing with a ‘Titanic’ that cost $200 million. Even if you have 3-D and a huge screen, those are tough odds.

“And if you do spend feature-film money on your IMAX film, you can’t just play it in one or two theaters and expect to recover your investment. It has to be in 1,000 theaters.”

Merrill said that as good as IMAX technology may be, its success in a purely commercial setting probably would depend upon its ability to deliver what audiences expect from a commercial movie: stars, good stories and thrills.

“Nobody,” he said, “is going to say, ‘Wow, I’m going to see an inferior, boring movie because it’s on a much bigger screen.”’

And there remains a fundamental esthetic question: Is the IMAX format even capable of telling conventional stories?

“The very grammar of IMAX is different from traditional 35mm films,” Merrill said. “The size of the image, how you frame shots, where you place the center of the screen. A high-impact action/adventure film might not translate easily to IMAX. The rapid-action editing could result in nausea and exhaustion. Even shooting a close-up is different.”

IMAX officials, however, say they’re already expanding the thematic boundaries of IMAX movies. In recent years they have offered such films as “Wings of Courage,” a 3-D retelling of early aviators’ attempts to carry mail over the Andes mountain range (starring Val Kilmer and Craig Sheffer and directed by noted French director Jean Jacques Annaud); and “The IMAX Nutcracker,” a new 3-D version of the famous Christmas story featuring British theater stars.

There’s more on the drawing boards. In addition to “T-Rex,” which will combine educational and thrill elements, the company is negotiating with Paramount Pictures to create abridged 3-D versions of upcoming “Star Trek” movies. Also in production are a film based on the life and stories of Mark Twain and a 3-D computer-animated fantasy.

The first purely commercial IMAX release was the 1991 concert film “Rolling Stones: ‘At the Max,”’ featuring Mick Jagger and cohorts. It’s been released in 45-and 90-minute versions, and in some markets, has become a cult favorite, drawing young audiences to IMAX theaters for evening screenings.

Meanwhile IMAX recently opened its first 3-D simulator ride in Las Vegas, where visitors watch “Race for Atlantis” - a journey to the legendary mythical lost continent - from seats that shudder, shake and tilt during a wild chariot ride.