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Creator / IMAX

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The World's Most Immersive Movie Experience
The really big screen. IMAX is a Canadian invention, with the IMAX Corporation headquartered in Toronto.

The first IMAX film was screened at the 1970 World's Fair in Osaka, Japan. Today, many movies are released in IMAX.

IMAX gets its high quality from running 70mm film sideways through the projector. Unlike normal 70mm, which uses 5 perforations per frame with a 2.20:1 Aspect Ratio, IMAX uses 15 perforations per frame for three times the exposure area. This makes an aspect ratio of 1.43:1. This format is designed for massive movie screens that can be as tall as 75 feet, known as IMAX GT (Grand Theater) theaters.

IMAX has become a very common format for science documentaries and art films shown at science museums worldwide. Many science documentaries are designed for showing on dome-shaped theaters officially called IMAX Domenote  that wrap around 180 degrees, up 100 degrees, and down 22 degrees to the viewer for full immersion. In addition, they typically run for about half the length of a feature film.

Starting with The Dark Knight, IMAX has been used for major motion pictures. Though it used 65mm cameras with the full 1.43:1 ratio, most major IMAX films are digital IMAX, with the full aspect being 1.90:1note . However, IMAX 70mm still gets used in some major motion pictures, with Christopher Nolan using it the most.

These films are shown in open matte in IMAX theaters. However, most of these films are not shot entirely in IMAX, causing aspect ratio switches when shown in IMAX ratio. No major motion picture so far has been made entirely in IMAX 70mm, mainly due to the cameras being heavy, bulky and loud. The first major motion picture to be made entirely in digital IMAX is Avengers: Infinity Warnote . The Suicide Squad and the upcoming The Flash (2023) use 1.90:1 as its normal aspect ratio as opposed to being open matte in IMAX. Starting with The Lion King (2019), films could fill an IMAX GT screen without filming on 65mm. Followed by Dune (2021) (shot digitally) and Lightyear.

IMAX ratios are rarely made available for viewing outside of IMAX theaters, with most home video releases cropping the IMAX sequences to match the rest of the film, just like they're shown in non-IMAX theaters. Documentaries and art films shot entirely in IMAX 65mm are cropped to 16:9 for home viewing. Some films, such as The Dark Knight, include the aspect ratio switches on Blu-ray (but not internet or TV formats), but IMAX sequences are cropped to 16:9. In 2021, Disney+, in a novel move, made the IMAX-formatted versions of all applicable films in the Marvel Cinematic Universe available to stream, which continued for future films in the series as well as Lightyear. Most of them show the whole 1.90:1 for applicable scenes. However, Eternals (2021) is the first 1.43:1 MCU film, and 1.43:1 sequences are cropped to 16:9, just like Christopher Nolan films.

Here's a filmography of films, music videos and attractions released in IMAX, including (all listed in alphabetical order):

Filmography of IMAX films, including 3D Movies:

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