The Imax experience goes up North

MANILA, Philippines – Film enthusiasts in the North metro area can now enjoy a larger-than-life movie viewing experience when SM Cinema opens a new IMAX Theater at SM City North-EDSA on July 16. This is the second IMAX Theater in the Philippines — the first theater opened at the SM Mall of Asia in 2006.

Located at the second level of the mall’s City Center, the new theater will be equipped with the world’s most advanced digital theater system, which will deliver the IMAX ultimate movie experience to moviegoers — crystal clear images, laser aligned digital sound and customized theater geometry which maximizes your field of view. Collectively, these create an experience that consistently puts the audience “in” the movie.

To achieve this, the new IMAX Theater will have a comprehensive suite of proprietary IMAX technologies — the IMAX Image Enhancer, Customized Theater Geometry, the IMAX Audio System, the IMAX Screen, Dual Digital Projectors and IMAX DMR.

Complementing the larger-than-life viewing experience is a blockbuster opening with the much-awaited Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince as the new IMAX Theater’s first film. Avid moviegoers and Harry Potter fans will be able to watch the adventures of their hero in IMAX’s amazing 3D experience as Harry Potter begins his sixth year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardy. He discovers an old book mysteriously marked “This book is the property of the Half-Blood Prince” and begins to learn more about Lord Voldermort’s dark past.

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince has been digitally re-mastered into the unparalleled image and sound quality of the IMAX Experience through proprietary IMAX DMR Technology. Additionally utilizing IMAX’s revolutionary live action 2D to 3D conversion technology, 12 minutes of the movie’s opening sequence has been transformed into IMAX 3D for a truly magical beginning.

The IMAX system has its roots in EXPO ‘67 in Montreal, Canada, where multi-screen films were the hit of the fair. A small group of Canadian filmmakers/entrepreneurs who had made some of those popular films, decided to design a new system using a single, powerful projector rather than the cumbersome multi-projectors used at that time. The result: The IMAX motion picture projection system, which would revolutionize giant screen cinema.

IMAX technology premiered at the Fuji Pavilion, EXPO ’70 in Osaka, Japan. The first permanent IMAX projection system was installed at Ontario Place’s Cinesphere in Toronto in 1971.

Today, the IMAX Theater Network consists of more than 250 IMAX affiliated theaters in 36 countries. Approximately 60 percent of the theaters are located in North America, while the remaining 40 percent are spread internationally.

As mentioned earlier, SM Cinema opened the first IMAX Theater in the Philippines at the SM Mall of Asia in 2006. This upped the ante for entertainment standards in the country, and since that time Filipinos have enjoyed both Hollywood blockbusters and documentary films with IMAX’s wonderful technology.

The opening of the second IMAX Theater at SM City North-EDSA is a major component of the mall’s ongoing redevelopment to better serve its shoppers in the North Metro area. Other components include the upscale The Block, which opened in 2006; the renovated Annex which has the largest Cyberzone in the SM malls; and the Skygarden, which brings a whole new malling experience to the Philippines.

It is also part of SM Cinema’s continuing efforts to bring cutting-edge entertainment to millions of Filipinos through its 206 screens nationwide and its innovative promotions.