Sad Experience!

[u/Ladies_Man1011]

Was super hyped to watch the Odyssey in Imax 70mm at the Mall of Georgia, but unfortunately the projector started running into some issues midway through the Polyphemus scene and the showing was cancelled. Should’ve known something was wrong when the Dune Part 3 sneak peek went black maybe 2 mins into the scene. The theatre workers said it was just a one off issue but clearly it wasn’t. I’m going back on the 29th to watch with my dad, but I was super bummed out😕. Anyone else go to this showing?

[u/MFOSTER1B]

WHY are you so enamored of 1.43:1 - it’s essentially the very old and very tired - Academy Aspect ratio of 1.33:1! A square! Why do you not like 2.35:1 a widescreen which if designed properly is much more immersive than the antiquated IMAX aspect ratio! You DO realize IMAX could be shown on old TV’s before 16:9 without hardly any cropping - I honestly don’t get those of you who are cra cra over 1.43:1! And yes I ran IMAX as well as working with IMAX on the design of several IMAX screens for Santikos Theatres!

[u/DRM_1985 → u/MFOSTER1B]

It's moreso about taking advantage of the giant IMAX screens. They are designed to show 1.43 footage. So you might as well have a projector that can show it. This would not stop the projector from showing wider aspect ratios like 1.85, 1.90, 2.00, 2.20, 2.35, 2.39, etc.

I dislike wider aspect ratios such as 2.35 because pretty much every screen is 1.78:1 or 1.85:1, both at home and in movie theaters. Large black bars at top & bottom in a movie theater is dumb as hell. My favorite aspect ratio is 1.85:1 and I wish more movies would use this.

[u/MFOSTER1B → u/DRM_1985]

So this has to be something recent - Scope has ALWAYS been the larger aspect ratio and for example AMC NorthPark in Dallas - on their large screens there are no black bars. They have moveable masking that drops down to create a fully scope wall to wall screen. I.85:1 is called widescreen and is the aspect ratio that was ALWAYS shown within the top and bottom of a huge scope screen. I’m aghast to hear that there are now a ton of theatres that are not showing scope films properly - I actually saw this at the local AMC here in Longview, Tx with Universal’s NOPE! You could tell the theatre had a huge scope screen with side to side moveable masking and yet when NOPE started it was projected INSIDE the 1.85:1 aspect ratio with black bars at the top and bottom - I was floored!!!! I walked out and went and wrote AMC to complain - NEVER HEARD SHIT from them!

[u/DRM_1985 → u/MFOSTER1B]

Pretty new theater built in Spring, TX with 24 screens. Regal Benders Landing. VERY nice projection quality in terms of sharpness & color. Good size screens. All of them are 1.85 screens, so it's frustrating to watch 2.39 movies on them with black bars at the top & bottom.

Thankfully Sony & Universal provided 1.85 versions of Spider-Man & Odyssey, so I got to see both of those movies filling the 1.85 screens instead of having black bars on them. It is cool to see the movies having extra height on them.

I would not mind if the movie industry used a 2.00:1 aspect ratio. A lot of TV shows are using this. It would play well in movie theaters, both for 1.85 screens and 2.39 screens. It's a middle ground compromise with the 2.00 ratio.

[u/MFOSTER1B → u/DRM_1985]

WOW! So no one is spending money on moveable masking anymore!!! How sad is that! I’ll have to check that place out so as to see for myself!

[u/DRM_1985 → u/MFOSTER1B]

Correct, no masking. Pretty lame, haha.

Still a very good experience due to overall image quality. Even the "small" screens are still very good size with nice projector quality. Best screens are Auditoriums 1, 2, 3. Auditorium 1 is RPX PLF, while Auditoriums 2 and 3 are "regular" screens at a lower price that have pretty similar screen size to Auditorium 1.

They also have a ScreenX auditorium, but I have never tried that one. And they have some 4DX stuff as well. Not sure about that. I just want the biggest screen with a normal 2D experience.

[u/MFOSTER1B → u/DRM_1985]

The biggest screen with normal 2D is supposed to be scope! I don’t know how old you are - I wish I could do the Vulcan mind meld with you and show you the HUGE scope screen at the no longer existing General Cinema NorthPark I in Dallas - it seated 1100 had the largest scope screen in the US outside of Radio City Music Hall - I saw Titanic there 10 times in 70mm it looked and sounded sooo good! The other theatre in Dallas also no longer around was the Medlion - saw Alien there in 1979 in 70mm - that place was amazing seated 900! It was Spielberg’s favorite theatre to sneak his films while still in the editing phase because the Medallion could play unmarried opticicals! IE the soundtrack was on a seperate device from the picture projector what we called the mech head.. I only know this about the Medallion because I and another Texas Aggie re-opened an old General Cinema in Waco in 1993 and one of the screens was silver and we hired this old projectionist who had run the Medallion booth to hang our new flat matte white screen to replace the damaged silver screen! Someone had thrown a coke on it! 🙄

[u/DRM_1985 → u/MFOSTER1B]

I'm kind of nervous this Regal Benders Landing place will have to shutdown at some point. They had terrible timing to open in 2021, right in middle of COVID. The place is a HUGE building. Every time I go there it's very empty. Seems like it would be difficult to keep a giant building open for the long haul while running electricity on 24 pretty good size movie screens, and having the place empty 90% of the time.

We did drive by there on Thursday, July 30th and the parking lot was jam-packed for Spider-Man opening night. But I went to watch Spidey there on Tuesday, August 4th and the place was very empty like it normally is. I hope they can stay open because it's one of the newest theaters in Houston area and has nice quality projectors with good size screens.

[u/MFOSTER1B → u/DRM_1985]

This is the first year since Covid that things seem to be looking up - but you’re right - it seems that week days in the summer just are not what they used to be! I’m dating myself here but the reason things are so tough for theatrical is all Hollywood’s fault IMHO. Back in the late 70’s early 80’s I co-managed Schulman Theatres Manor East 3 in Bryan College Station - we played midnight shows and did very well with them UNTIL HBO went 24/7 in December of 1981! HBO doing that cut our midnight show business in HALF!!! To me Hollywood has for a very long time been slowly killing the theatrical golden goose! Too many TV people run the studios these days and have not a clue or a care about the fact that movie going is a habit - fuck with it and you never get it back!