Desert IMAX Theatre
68510 E. Palm Canyon Drive,
Cathedral City,
CA
92234
68510 E. Palm Canyon Drive,
Cathedral City,
CA
92234
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Also, SR Entertainment Group no longer operates it.
It is no longer going to be a movie theater, and it hasn’t been an IMAX theater for quite some time.
The theater is currently being renovated into a performing arts theater. https://www.palmspringslife.com/cathedral-city-5/
It opened on April 1st, 1999. Grand opening ad in the photo section.
Trouble in 2001 https://www.newspapers.com/clip/8303011/imax_trouble_part_1/
Found on Newspapers.com
and https://www.newspapers.com/clip/8302999/imax_theatre_trouble/
Found on Newspapers.com
IMAX is gone! UltraStar has stopped showing IMAX films and will convert this to their “UltraMax” brand. I have seen Non-Imax movies on this screen 4 times with the 4K Christie Projectors (when they dont get 70mm prints they show movies via DCP on their non imax projector they installed in 2011) and it is a dark picture..nothing like true Imax. Sad. Here is the article:
http://www.desertsun.com/story/news/local/2014/06/15/cathedral-city-imax-movie-theater-ultramax/10566515/
CATHEDRAL CITY – Change is coming to the Coachella Valley’s IMAX theater that officials say will mean more first-run movies on the large screen, but not in IMAX format.
The theater is transitioning to UltraMax, a product of UltraStar Cinemas, which manages the Desert IMAX and neighboring 14-screen Mary Pickford Theatre for Cathedral City.
Over the weekend, IMAX lettering was removed from the theater’s exterior. Above the marquee, a banner announcing “Desert Cinema Large Screen Experience” was hung over the former lettering.
“We believe this is better,” Cathedral City Mayor Kathy DeRosa said Sunday. “We had trouble getting first-run movies through IMAX, and the catalog of movies was limited.”
UltraMax will primarily show newly released movies in digital 3-D on the 70-foot-wide by 52-foot-high screen, she said.
The City Council approved the transition more than a month ago, said DeRosa. She said costs would be reduced for the city but couldn’t recall offhand the exact savings.
UltraStar Cinemas took over management of the 14-screen Pickford and 270-seat Desert IMAX theaters in November 2011 under a five-year contract with the city.
A nearly $500,000 digital film projector was installed in the IMAX in July 2011, allowing for more flexibility in the types of movies that can be shown and more revenue for the theater, at 68-510 E. Palm Canyon Drive, officials then said.
Theater and UltraStar officials couldn’t be reached for comment Sunday.
According to its website, UltraStar has at least one other UltraMax theater at the Garden Walk in Anaheim with a 65-foot wide screen “developed to provide an amazing large screen experience similar to those provided by other branded formats.”
UltraStar Cinemas has taken over management from SR Entertainment of both the Desert IMAX and the Mary Pickford 14 across the parking lot.
They have installed the two Christie 2K digital machines on top of the SR 15/70 film projectors.
They are keeping both formats.
The Desert IMAX Theatre was designed by the Seattle architectural firm Stricker Cato Murphy Architects. The firm has designed a number of large-format theaters, several for institutional settings (Seattle Maritime Museum and the Minnesota Zoo, for example) and a few commercial venues as well.
Anyone have more info or photos, especially of the booth before it went digital?
No Cathedral is in Cathedral City. It’s named for “Cathedral Canyon” South of town, which is full of rock formations reminiscent of a Cathedral.