To spot IMAX Melbourne, look for a striking, modern building with huge angled silver panels and a bold IMAX sign above a glass entryway-it’s right in front of you now.
Welcome to the cinematic heart of Carlton-IMAX Melbourne, where movie screens are so massive they make your television back home look like a postage stamp. Imagine stepping up to the entrance and realizing that you’re about to go eight storeys down beneath the Melbourne Museum, all to reach a theater so big, it holds the title of largest IMAX in the Southern Hemisphere and, for a while, was the biggest in the entire world! If you think that’s a lot of underground, you’re right. When the theater opened back in 1998, contractors had to dig deep-literally and figuratively-to build a space worthy of gigantic stories and epic surround sound. But, as with any epic adventure, they hit a few snags. As workers drilled into the earth, they found contaminated soil and unpredictable water seeping up, which must have made the place feel more like an underground river than a movie palace. But they pushed through, and when the doors finally opened in March 1998, Melbourne audiences gasped in awe as the film Everest towered 31 metres high and 23 metres across, as if the mountain itself was looming inside the theatre.
Now, let’s fast forward a bit-much like the fast-forward button on your remote. By 2013, technology had caught up with even the grandest cinema dreams. IMAX Melbourne closed briefly to install a shiny new digital xenon system alongside its classic 1570 film projector. Movie lovers were delighted-until, just two years later, the theater shut again. This time, engineers installed a next-level dual laser projection system, an upgraded 12 Channel sound system, and a brand-new, even sharper screen. In a twist straight from a sci-fi flick, the old film projector was wheeled away into storage, probably feeling a little left out.
But, like a hero making a comeback, the classic 1570 projector staged a triumphant return in 2017, just in time for the blockbuster Dunkirk. And if you’re a movie buff, you’ll think this bit is cool: in 2023, when Oppenheimer hit the screens, Melbourne IMAX became one of only 30 theaters in the whole world- and the only one in the Southern Hemisphere-able to show the film in its original 1570 format. That’s like cinema superpowers!
Inside, this place is no less impressive: the screen stretches a jaw-dropping 32 by 23 meters, with a capacity for 461 people (including, for anyone feeling fancy, 25 VIP seats). The sound system? So powerful you feel the T-Rex run before you see it. So, whether you’re after Hollywood’s latest blockbusters or planetarium-sized documentaries, you’re experiencing stories on a scale that’s rare anywhere else-especially here in cozy Carlton.
Alright, grab some popcorn and maybe a neck brace for looking up at that gigantic screen-IMAX Melbourne offers an adventure every time the lights go down.
