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IMAX movie theater coming to Bakersfield
| Thursday, Jun 12 2008 9:17 AM
Last Updated: Thursday, Jun 12 2008 5:14 PM
A dazzling new IMAX movie theater is set to open next year inside the Edwards Bakersfield 14 on Ming Avenue near Cal State Bakersfield.
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The complex would be reconfigured to accommodate 13 regular screens and an auditorium specifically for IMAX films, known for transporting viewers with more light and detail on an extra-large screen, better sound and in some cases, three-dimensional images.
When it isn’t showing IMAX films at an undetermined premium ticket price, the venue would present regular movies on a bigger screen, a marketing manager for the theater’s Tennessee-based owner, Regal Entertainment Group, said Thursday.
Local entertainment professionals expect the IMAX to do well.
“It’s nice to have more options here in Bakersfield,” said Frank Kruz, who lines up entertainment at The Nile Theater on 19th Street. He said people who have lived in cities with IMAX theaters would be pleased with the news.
“I’m excited to hear about it, personally,” he added.
There’s little danger that it will draw crowds away from other venues, said the theater service manager at the Majestic Fox Theater on H Street, Marcus Johnson.
“I think any type of entertainment in Bakersfield is good,” he said. “It always enhances the community.”
The auditorium would be among at least 50 digital IMAX theaters being built nationwide, bringing the total to about 110.
The nearest IMAX is in Santa Clarita; another exists in Fresno.
While IMAX is often associated with science films, mainstream releases have recently come out in the format, including “Kung Fu Panda” and “Speed Racer.”
IMAX, short for “image maximum,” is a film format that projects higher-resolution images than what’s possible with conventional systems. IMAX’s larger screens are intended to give the impression of being immersed in the movie.
Bakersfield’s IMAX system is expected to show digital movies, which are valued both because they don’t lose quality over time and because they can be downloaded quickly over a private Internet connection rather than shipped.
Design work remains to be done before construction on the IMAX system can begin, and no target date has been set for opening the theater, said Robbie Arrington, Regal’s marketing manager. But he said the company hopes it will debut in the first half of 2009.
“It’s coming, it’s happening — we just can’t say when yet,” he said.
English teacher Neil Richmond was unimpressed with the news, saying he would prefer to see more high-brow venues open locally.
“I would like to see Bakersfield expand its cultural horizon other than another movie theater,” he said.
But legal assistant Sophia Ruiz said the IMAX would present residents with an interesting new entertainment option.
“Maybe our action movies will look better” on IMAX, she said.