Editing IMAX (section)

==History==
[[File:IMAX comparison.svg|thumb|A comparison between 35&nbsp;mm and 15/70&nbsp;mm negative areas]]

===Multiscreen Corporation===
The single-projector/single-camera system they eventually settled upon was designed and built by Shaw based upon a novel "Rolling Loop" film-transport technology purchased from Peter Ronald Wright Jones, a machine shop worker from Brisbane, Australia.<ref>see {{US patent|3494524}}</ref> Film projectors do not continuously flow the film in front of the bulb, but instead "stutter" the film travel so that each frame can be illuminated in a momentarily-paused still image. This requires a mechanical apparatus to buffer the jerky travel of the film strip. The older technology of running 70&nbsp;mm film vertically through the projector used only five sprocket perforations on the sides of each frame; however, the IMAX method used fifteen perforations per frame.<ref name="gizmodo.com">[https://gizmodo.com/how-regular-movies-become-imax-films-5250780 How Regular Movies Become "IMAX" Films], by Mark Wilson (Gizmodo.com, published May 29, 2009)</ref> The previous mechanism was inadequate to handle this intermittent mechanical movement that was three times longer, and so Jones's invention was necessary for the novel IMAX projector method with its horizontal film feed. As it became clear that a single, large-screen image had more impact than multiple smaller ones and was a more viable product direction, Multiscreen changed its name to IMAX. Co-founder Graeme Ferguson explained how the name IMAX originated:<ref>{{cite web |last1=Wise |first1=Wyndham |title=IMAX at 30: An Interview with Graeme Ferguson |url=http://www.northernstars.ca/ferguson_graeme_article/ |website=NorthernStars.ca |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171207023535/http://www.northernstars.ca/ferguson_graeme_article/ |archive-date=2017-12-07 |url-status=dead}} Originally published in Take One magazine, Issue #17, Fall 1997.</ref>

<blockquote>... the incorporation date [of the company was] September 1967. ... [The name change] came a year or two later. We first called the company Multiscreen Corporation because that, in fact, was what people knew us as. ... After about a year, our attorney informed us that we could never copyright or trademark Multivision. It was too generic. It was a descriptive word. The words that you can copyright are words like Kleenex or Xerox or Coca-Cola. If the name is descriptive, you can't trademark it so you have to make up a word. So we were sitting at lunch one day in a Hungarian restaurant in Montreal and we worked out a name on a placemat on which we wrote all the possible names we could think of. We kept working with the idea of maximum image. We turned it around and came up with IMAX.</blockquote>

The name change actually happened more than two years later, because a key patent filed on January 16, 1970, was assigned under the original name Multiscreen Corporation, Limited.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://patents.google.com/patent/US3944349A/en|title=Shutter assembly|website=Patents.google.com|access-date=May 10, 2021}}</ref>  IMAX Chief Administration Officer Mary Ruby was quoted as saying, "Although many people may think 'IMAX' is an [[acronym]], it is, in fact, a made-up word."<ref>{{cite magazine|url=https://www.managingip.com/Article/1257879/Latest-News-Magazine/The-full-picture.html?ArticleId=1257879|title=Managing IP, INTA Daily News article|magazine=[[Managing Intellectual Property]]|access-date=May 10, 2021}}{{Dead link|date=October 2022 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref>

=== IMAX Corporation ===
{{Main|IMAX Corporation}}
[[File:IMAX film projector 2011 Bradford.jpg|thumb|upright|IMAX projector with horizontal film reel]]

''[[Tiger Child]]'', the first IMAX film, was demonstrated at [[Expo '70]] in [[Osaka]], Japan.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.ieee.ca/millennium/imax/imax_chronology.html |title=IMAX'S Chronology of Techonological (sic) Events |access-date=February 23, 2010 |publisher=IEEE Canada, Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers}}</ref> The first permanent IMAX installation was built at the [[Cinesphere]] theatre at [[Ontario Place]] in Toronto. It debuted in May 1971, showing the film ''[[North of Superior]]''. The installation remained in place<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.imax.com/corporate/profile/historyMilestones/ |title=Corporate, History & Milestones |publisher=IMAX.com |access-date=July 3, 2010 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100704081254/http://www.imax.com/corporate/profile/historyMilestones/ |archive-date=July 4, 2010 |df=mdy-all }}</ref> during Ontario Place's hiatus for redevelopment. The Cinesphere was renovated while Ontario Place was closed and re-opened on November 3, 2017, with IMAX 70&nbsp;mm and IMAX with laser illumination.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Cheng |first1=Jennifer |title=Inside the newly restored Cinesphere at Ontario Place |url=https://torontolife.com/culture/movies-and-tv/ontario-place-cinesphere-reopening/ |access-date=11 November 2018 |work=Toronto Life |publisher=Toronto Life Publishing Company Limited |date=3 November 2017}}</ref>

During [[Expo '74]] in [[Spokane, Washington]], an IMAX screen that measured {{convert|27|*|20|m|ft}} was featured in the 'Environmental Theater' of the US Pavilion, the largest structure in the expo; at the time, it was the largest movie screen in the world.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/expo74worldsfair0000bowe/ |title=Expo '74 World's Fair, Spokane |first=Dawn |last=Bowers |date=1974 |lccn=74-15913 |publisher=Lawton Printing |url-access=registration}}</ref>{{rp|22;102}} It became the first IMAX Theatre to not be partnered with any other brand of movie theatres. About five million visitors viewed the short film ''[[Man Belongs to the Earth]]''. Because the screen covered the viewer's total visual field when looking directly forward, most felt a sensation of motion and some experienced [[motion sickness]].<ref name=Sommerfeld24>{{cite news |url=https://www.inlander.com/culture/expo-74s-featured-the-biggest-movie-screen-on-the-planet-imax-27885953 |title=Expo '74 featured the biggest movie screen on the planet — IMAX |first=Seth |last=Sommerfeld |date=May 2, 2024 |work=Inlander |access-date=18 December 2024}}</ref>

The large pavilion screen was torn down after the exposition closed and was replaced by a nearby permanent IMAX theater which opened in 1978 and was demolished in 2018;<ref name=Sommerfeld24/> however, its screen size is less than half. Due to protests, the City of Spokane officials decided to work with the IMAX Corporation to demolish the 1978 theatre, under the condition they renovate the former US Pavilion itself into IMAX's first permanent ''outdoor'' giant-screen theatre. The plan was to use material on the inside of the structure similar to that used when first constructed. However, it was expected to last only five years, due to weather conditions destroying previous materials.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.spokesman.com/stories/2016/sep/30/imax-theater-in-riverfront-park-headed-for-demolit/ |title= Imax theater in Riverfront Park headed for demolition; the fate of pavilion rides still in question |publisher= The Spokesmen-Review |date= Sep 30, 2016 |access-date= May 24, 2017}}</ref> Concept art has been released in videos featured on Spokane's renovation site, and its budget revealed that seating is planned for more than 2,000.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://riverfrontparknow.com/redevelopment/u-s-pavilion-shelters/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160216021903/http://riverfrontparknow.com/redevelopment/u-s-pavilion-shelters/ |url-status=dead |archive-date= February 16, 2016 |title= US Pavilion & Shelters |publisher= City of Spokane |access-date= May 24, 2017 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://static.spokanecity.org/documents/parksrec/aboutus/planning/2014-riverfront-park-master-plan.pdf |title=2014 Riverfront Park Master Plan |publisher= City of Spokane |access-date=June 1, 2017}}</ref>

The first permanent IMAX Dome installation, the Eugene Heikoff and Marilyn Jacobs Heikoff Dome Theatre at the [[Reuben H. Fleet Science Center]], opened in [[San Diego]]'s [[Balboa Park, San Diego, California|Balboa Park]] in 1973. It doubles as a [[planetarium]] theater. The first permanent IMAX 3D theatre was built in [[Vancouver]], British Columbia, for ''[[Transitions (film)|Transitions]]'' at [[Expo '86]], and was in use until September 30, 2009.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.imax.com/vancouver/ |title=IMAX Theatre |publisher=Imax.com |date=October 1, 2009 |access-date=July 3, 2010}} (official site).</ref> It was located at the tip of [[Canada Place]], a Vancouver landmark.

=== Digital projection ===
{{see also|#Digital}}
In 2008, IMAX extended its brand into traditional theaters with the introduction of Digital IMAX, a lower-cost system that uses two 2K digital projectors to project on a 1.90:1 aspect ratio screen. This lower-cost option, which allowed for the conversion of existing [[multiplex theater]] auditoriums, helped IMAX to grow from 299 screens worldwide at the end of 2007 to over 1,000 screens by the end of 2015.<ref name=results2015>{{cite press release|author1=IMAX Corporation|title=IMAX Corporation Reports Fourth-Quarter And Full-Year 2015 Financial Results|url=http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/imax-corporation-reports-fourth-quarter-and-full-year-2015-financial-results-300225647.html|publisher=PR Newswire|access-date=February 24, 2016|date=February 24, 2016}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=IMAX Corporation Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2007|url=http://media.corporate-ir.net/media_files/irol/11/118725/2007_IMAX_Annual_Report.pdf|date=March 14, 2008|access-date=2016-02-29}}</ref> {{As of|2017|9}}, there were 1,302 IMAX theatres located in 75 countries, of which 1,203 were in commercial multiplexes.<ref name="canada-vr">{{cite web|url=https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/stocks/imax-and-cineplex-launch-canada-s-first-imax-vr-centre-at-scotiabank-theatre-toronto-1008432655|title=IMAX and Cineplex Launch Canada's First IMAX VR Centre at Scotiabank Theatre Toronto|website=markets.businessinsider.com}}</ref>

The switch to digital projection came at a steep cost in image quality, with [[2K resolution|2K]] projectors having roughly an order of magnitude less resolution than traditional IMAX film projectors. Maintaining the same 7-story screen size would only make this loss more noticeable, so many new theaters were instead built with significantly smaller screens. These newer theaters with much lower resolution and much smaller screens soon began to be referred to by the derogatory name "LieMAX", particularly because the company still marketed the new screens similarly to the old ones, without making the major differences clear to the public, going so far as to market the smallest "IMAX" screen, having 10 times less area, similarly to the largest while persisting with the same brand name.<ref>[https://www.npr.org/2014/05/02/308939700/maintaining-the-imax-experience-from-museum-to-multiplex Maintaining The IMAX Experience, From Museum To Multiplex], by Elizabeth Blair (NPR.org, May 2, 2014)</ref><ref>[https://lfexaminer.com/2010/04/the-shrinking-imax-screen/ The Shrinking IMAX Screen] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190525134659/http://www.lfexaminer.com/20100421shrinking-imax-screens.htm |date=May 25, 2019 }}, originally published in the LF Examiner, April 2010</ref>

Since 2002, some feature films have been converted into IMAX format for displaying in IMAX theatres, and some have also been (partially) shot in IMAX. By late 2017, 1,302 IMAX theatre systems were installed in 1,203 commercial multiplexes, 13 commercial destinations, and 86 institutional settings in 75 countries,<ref name="canada-vr"/> with less than a quarter of those having the capability to show 70mm film at the resolution of the large format as originally conceived.