IMAX's Brand Dilution and the Hidden Value of Quality Control

IMAX has become synonymous with premium moviegoing, but its brand is deeply inconsistent. Of 417 U.S. IMAX theaters, only about 50 have the original square screens, and just half of those can project 70mm film. The rest are retrofitted multiplex auditoriums with varying projector quality, some delivering fewer pixels than a home TV. A ticket to see Christopher Nolan's 'The Odyssey' at a suburban IMAX like Regal Deer Park costs $29.18 but shows a cropped version on a standard rectangle screen. Meanwhile, the AMC Lincoln Square 13 IMAX in New York shows the film as intended on 70mm film with a 101x76-foot screen, with tickets selling on eBay for nearly $1,000. IMAX's real advantage is quality control: every auditorium has microphones and image sensors monitored remotely from headquarters, with daily automated calibrations and real-time picture adjustments. This contrasts with standard theaters where digital projectors from the Avatar era are aging, maintenance is neglected, and projection problems go unfixed. Dolby Cinema operates similarly, and Disney's Infinity Vision certification received over 7,500 applications. Yet these premium formats cover less than 2% of America's 40,000 screens. The broader trend: moviegoing is declining, with a third fewer tickets sold in the first half of 2026 vs. 2019, masked by higher ticket prices.