AMC Empire 25

Howard,

For years, I was complaining about this since you and I both know some auditoriums are nicer than others and have better offerings (Digital sound, projection, etc). What I’ve found out from places like Movietickets.com and Fandango is that it is up to theater management as to how they post the information. I suspect it is the same with newspapers, too. I doubt they (newspapers) advertise auditorium info at a plex as a public service.

So, if management wants to advertise that Movie A is in auditorium #1, with THX/DTS or Dolby Digital EX or Movie B is in DLP, then they need to inform the website of that fact.

Don’t go to theaters with dinky screens. Most newly built multiplexes like this one only have decent-sized screens.

Davis, theatres avoid publishing this information as they often change screens according to demand or accommodate other screenings during the week.

The Empire needs new seats. The cushions are as flat as pancakes! Forget an IMAX screen and put the money into new cushions!

Meanwhile, back on planet earth…

That’s the show I saw, Al. The Caesar’s Palace OMNIMAX dome is gone, but I believe there is a standard IMAX theatre in the Luxor Hotel. I think the difference between IMAX and OMNIMAX was that latter’s curved dome presentation. The films geared towards dome presentation were in more of a fisheye perspective with the viewer’s peripheral vision seeming to extend up and over one’s head as well as below the point where one’s eyes would naturally fix their focus – that is, assuming one was situated among the very few “sweet-spot” seats about 1/3 of the way up the stadium and dead center on the screen’s vertical axis.

Do they still include the IMAX introduction at the original tall IMAX facilities (such as the Lincoln Square)? There wasn’t a curtain, but there was an interesting and slowly changing lighting scheme to mask the vast whiteness of the blank screen before a show. As well, just before the feature, a voice would come over the loudspeaker to give a brief overview on the specs of the IMAX screen, film guage and projection process – during backlights would be brought up behind the screen to reveal the massive steel framework on which the screen was hung. After the show, audiences were invariably asked to exit at the rear of the auditorium and would be led around the back of the glass enclosed projection booth where they could glimpse the massive platter and projector on the way out. I’m not sure if this last glimpse behind the curtain was a part of the Lincoln Square show – I might be remembering that particular bit of showmanship from my earlier experiences with the format in Las Vegas and Niagara Falls. In the version I saw in Las Vegas way back in 1980, the format was advertised as “Omnimax” and was presented in a dome at Caesar’s Palace.

It can just be a larger clearer image on a standard screen as they have done in Florida before. They used to project with wide stock film that needed the film to be shorter in order to fit the platter. As a result the early IMAX blow-ups of THE MATRIX and BATMAN films were shorter versions.

They now project on digital 3-D but still play shorter version. I suspect it is to buy time for the headphone distribution and collection.

In either case it is a deterioration of a concept that never worked at the boxoffice. The incredible WINGS OF COURAGE presentation I mentioned above was undermined by the fact the film was less than an hour long, the plot was porn light and the heavier speaker head gear gave some people headaches. Still, it was a virtual reality treat to hear Elizabeth McGovern whisper in my ear and the surround sound and giant images of the Andes were breathtaking.

That showing had no similarities to what is now called an IMAX presentation any more than the last few movies advertised as “Cinerama” did.

So, it’ll be IMAX shoehorned into a standard multiplex box? What do you mean by “edited” for IMAX – is that due to a difference in the aspect ratio? Or do you refer to different editing choices to maximize the 3-D sequences? Aside from that, isn’t IMAX on a standard multiplex screen basically a 70mm presentation? Or is that too simple a comparison?

I am there practically every week since I moved into the neighborhood and the tourist element is insignificant at the movies unless you consider people from The Bronx tourists. The ‘burbs crowd also pack Red Lobster, and The Bubba Gump Shrimp Company.

AMC has no down side if the IMAX projectors are free, no screens are lost, and regular films can still show in that screen. In the future if I have a choice between IMAX 3-D and 35mm I will choose the latter as I hate it when they edit the films to accommodate the format and the 3-D gimmick wears thin five minutes in, even when they keep throwing things at you as they do in BEOWULF.

If others think like me, it will soon be KISS ME KATE at Radio City Music Hall all over again.

Tourists visiting Times Square flock to Red Lobster and The Olive Garden, so an IMAX screen at the Empire is probably a safe bet on AMC’s behalf.

It’s a watered down version with a much smaller screen. IMAX is going the way of Cinerama by getting less spectacular every year.

When I saw WINGS OF COURAGE in IMAX 3-D with headphone sound to augment the speakers I felt I was seeing the future of the movies. When I recently saw an edited version of HARRY POTTER with ten minutes of lame 3-D effects I felt ripped-off.

IMAX has been struggling mostly by discounting school groups. Why would tourists buy tickets to something almost every town in the world already has?

Only 25 short blocks up Broadway.