Frisco residents will now have a much shorter drive to see an IMAX movie -- if they don't want to see it on a big screen, that is.
A new theater opening Friday at Stonebriar Center is touting "The IMAX Experience." But the screen is actually what bloggers and movie fans have dubbed the "Fake Imax."
According to the Frisco Enterprise, the new screen only measures 52 feet wide and 29 feet high. That's a far cry from the giant-sized "real" IMAX screens, which are generally 52 feet high or larger.
The IMAX screen at Dallas' Cinemark IMAX Theatre, for example, is five stories high.
Parks and Recreation actor Aziz Ansari famously ranted about the bait-and-switch screens on his blog and on Twitter in May. (Warning: the language is colorful and not appropriate for kids.)
The Stonebriar screen was installed in a modified auditorium, the first clue that it doesn't offer the large-size viewing experience most associate with IMAX.
Unfortunately, the operator of Liemax.com, which offered a Google map of "real" versus "fake" IMAX screens announced Friday that he was retiring from updating the map, so it's harder to spot the "fake" IMAX screens. The theaters certainly don't say that their definition of "the IMAX experience" doesn't include a giant screen.
A press release announcing the Stonebriar screen says it offers a "uniquely immersive movie experience" with its images and digital sound system.
But to moviegoers, the digital delivery system alone doesn't make something IMAX. When you shell out the extra money for a IMAX ticket, you expect all that and the giant screen.
