IMAX is a motion-picture projection system that shows movies on a large screen. It projects pictures onto rectangular screens up to 98 feet (30 meters) high or domes as large as 88 feet (27 meters) in diameter. The system uses film with frames 10 times as large as a 35-millimeter frame. The large film size helps produce an extremely clear picture. IMAX’s unique “rolling loop” system advances the film horizontally in the projector in a smooth, wavelike motion, producing a steady picture. Other types of movie projectors advance the film vertically.
The IMAX system was developed by the IMAX Corporation. The corporation was founded in 1967 by Graeme Ferguson and Roman Kroitor, two Canadian filmmakers, and Robert Kerr, a Canadian businessman. Ferguson and Kroitor had produced films for Expo ‘67, a world’s fair held in Montreal, Canada. These films used multiple projectors and multiple screens to produce what appeared to be one large moving picture. The group decided to develop a new system that used a single projector to throw images onto a giant screen. In 1968, they enlisted William C. Shaw, a Canadian engineer, to design and build the projector. The IMAX system made its public debut at Expo ‘70, in Osaka, Japan. The first permanent IMAX theater opened in Toronto, Canada, in 1971.
Many films created for IMAX explore such natural wonders and scientific phenomena as national parks, atoms, and outer space. In 2002, IMAX Corporation developed a process called IMAX DMR (digital remastering). This process is used to transfer major Hollywood films to IMAX film. IMAX won the Academy Award for scientific and technical achievement in 1997. IMAX Corporation has headquarters in Mississauga, Ontario, Canada.
