After a highly successful China opening, Disney’s Lion King remake will hit screens across the globe this week. The film has officially been confirmed to fill up 40 Laser giant screens for five “key sequences”.
For those five sequences, the movie will expand to an aspect ratio of 1.43:1, thus presenting 40% more image compared than its standard aspect ratio of 1.85:1. That way custom-built IMAX giant screens will be filled from top to bottom.
Only 12 venues will screen the film that way in the United States, as well as another 28 abroad. The complete list of participating theaters, per the IMAX website, is below.
UNITED STATES
California
AMC Metreon 16 & IMAX — San Francisco
AMC Universal Citywalk Stadium 19 & IMAX — Los Angeles
IMAX Dome Theater, The Tech Museum — San Jose
Florida
Autonation IMAX, Museum of Discovery & Science — Fort Lauderdale
Illinois
Navy Pier IMAX at AMC — Chicago
Massachusetts
Sunbrella IMAX 3D Theater Reading — Reading
Missouri
Branson’s IMAX – Entertainment Complex — Branson
New York
AMC Lincoln Square 13 & IMAX — New York
Texas
IMAX, The Bullock Texas State History Museum — Austin
Virginia
Airbus IMAX, Stephen F. Udvar-Hazy Center — Chantilly
Washington
Boeing IMAX, Pacific Science Center — Seattle
Washington, D.C.
Lockheed Martin IMAX, National Air & Space Museum — Washington
OTHER COUNTRIES
Canada
Scotiabank Toronto & IMAX — Toronto
Australia
IMAX, Melbourne Museum — Carlton
Bahamas
Fusion Superflex & IMAX — Nassau
China
Dongguan South China Wanda IMAX Theatre — Dongguan
Harbin Entime Tailai Era IMAX Theatre — Harbin
Kunming Panxing Dadu LCC & IMAX — Kunming
Japan
109 Cinemas Osaka Expocity & IMAX — Osaka
IMAX, Melbourne Museum — Carlton
Korea
CGV Yongsan I-Park Mall & IMAX — Hangang-ro-3ga, Yongsan-gu
New Zealand
Event Cinemas Queen Street & IMAX — Auckland
Taiwan
Miramar IMAX — Taipei City
“Select musical sequences of The Lion King have been specially formatted exclusively for IMAX theatres – which means that during these scenes, the picture will expand vertically to fill the entire IMAX screen,” writes IMAX on its website.
Before IMAX introduced their Laser technology in 2015, giant screens such as the ones listed above were not able to fill up their entire screens for digital films due to standard Xenon projectors not allowing that. With Laser, digital films can now completely fill up those original, custom built 1.43:1 IMAX giant screens.
IMAX chief executive Rich Gelfond mentioned Favreau using IMAX cameras and extended aspect ratio for the film on an earnings call this April, which was noticed by TrailerTrack’s Anton Volkov.
“Jon Favreau specifically optimized five key sequences of the highly anticipated Lion King in our proprietary aspect ratio to maximize the IMAX consumer experience. Next year, we already have three films confirmed to be using our film cameras. Patty Jenkins is currently using these cameras on Wonder Woman 1984, creating an immersive story for moviegoers that no other format can match,” said Gelfond on the call.
Other films in the past few years which have taken advantage of 1.43:1 IMAX screens include First Man and Dunkirk, as well as a rerelease of Michael Jackson’s Thriller which was shown before IMAX presentations of The House with a Clock in Its Walls.
The Lion King is also set to fill 1.90:1 IMAX screens, as that is its aspect ratio for other scenes. The film opens nationwide this weekend.
Image: Walt Disney Pictures
