In recent months, Hoyts cinemas have been retrofitting selected cinemas into what they’re advertising as large-scale IMAX cinemas. Around the time Watchmen was released, my mates and I figured those famous blue appendage scenes would be best propelled into our faces via IMAX, so off we drove.
We were expecting a cinema screen of the precise gargantuan format you’d regularly expect from an IMAX screen. Instead, by my reckoning, Hoyts’ interpretation of an IMAX screen was only 25% of the normal IMAX size you’d expect. It was a bit larger than your average cinema screen, but certainly didn’t have the IMAX wow factor you’d expect for a $25 ticket.
The experience left us rather jaded – we’d been charged the equivalent of a Gold Class ticket price, plus we’d driven out to Highpoint to visit the special IMAX screens. I used to live near Highpoint when I was at university, so I feel qualified to promote the local nickname of “Knifepoint” as an appropriate summary of the area. Had we visited a regular cinema in the city, we could’ve strolled out to enjoy the nightlife afterwards. Instead, we had our wallets scraped out by IMAX’s new policy of whoring out their brand name willy-nilly, then driving home through suburbs which appeared to be based on a Grand Theft Auto expansion pack.
When I returned home, I discovered IMAX are licencing out their name to these comparitively smaller screens around the world. It seemed only fair to let Hoyts have their say, so I emailed them with my complaint. Their response didn’t completely address my concerns – just threw a lot of “IMAX is awesome!” facts at me – but the crux of their message was:
“Although screen size is an important component it is more about the screen geometry, aspect ratio and the enhanced viewing angles that provide every patron with the same experience regardless of seating position.”
On this basis, I’m stacking some milk crates on top of each other in a semi-circle 20 centimetres away from my TV screen, rebranding the experience as IMAX and charging my mates $25 to enter my living room.
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Hoyts lost the cinemas wars ages ago as far as I’m concerned.
They seem to have a monopoly on the outer suburbs and the few times i’ve gone there you get crappy tinny sound and average seats.
Not that I go often but when I do it’s usually at the Jam Factory, even when I didn’t live anywhere near it.
These days at $30+ for 2 adults I think cinemas in general can get stuffed, whether it’s wannabe IMAX or not.