December 21, 2018—Mike Day, Executive Vice President at the Science Museum of Minnesota (SMM) and giant screen industry innovator, will retire on March 3, 2019. Mike has been at SMM for 40 years, where he opened the world's second Omnitheater and produced more than a dozen films, including Ring of Fire and Jane Goodall's Wild Chimpanzees. Day was one of the founders of the Space Theater Consortium, the industry association precursor of GSCA. We thank Mike for being a stalwart champion of dome theaters and for his dedication and many contributions to the industry, the association, and the educational giant screen experience. Click here to read the full article from the St. Paul Pioneer Press.

 

 

December 18, 2018—IMAX is making its exit from virtual reality (VR) official: The company notified shareholders with a SEC filing last Thursday that it will close down its remaining three VR centers and write off “certain VR content investments.” Click here to read the full article in Variety.

The Giant Screen Cinema Association (GSCA) is pleased to announce its 2019 Board of Directors has elected officers and committee chairs for the coming year. These officers and committee chairs represent the 2019 Board, which was announced in November.

December 11, 2018—Canadian actor Ryan Reynolds has signed on to narrate Great Bear Rainforest, set in one of the planet’s most exquisite and secluded wildernesses. The main title theme for the film will be composed by the legendary Academy Award-winning composer Hans Zimmer, with the score being composed by Anže Rozman for Bleeding Fingers Music, produced by Russell Emanuel. The film is distributed by MacGillivray Freeman Films and will be released in select IMAX and giant screen theatres beginning February 15, 2019.

December 8, 2018—The first of eight new, live-action underwater shows in 4K for fulldome theaters and planetariums worldwide was announced today by production company Prospero Productions of Fremantle, Western Australia and BIG & Digital. “Ningaloo: Australia’s Other Great Reef” will reveal the intimate secrets of the world’s largest and relatively unexplored fringing reef during its world premiere at the Western Australian Maritime Museum in Fremantle, Australia, on December 29, 2018.

November 20, 2018—Les Cinémas Pathé Gaumont and the Cité des Sciences et de l'Industrie have announced that La Géode in Paris will be closed for renovations beginning Friday, November 30, 2018, and will reopen to the public in 2020.  There has been no announcement on which projection system the theater will have when it reopens. 

November 20, 2018—SimEx-Iwerks Entertainment is partnering with MacGillivray Freeman Films to deliver three exclusive new flying films in 2019 for the Vertical 4D Experience™, SimEx-Iwerks’ latest theater attraction that simulates the sensation of flying. Flying Across America will be available this spring, followed by the summer release of Flying Around The World and a fall release of Flying Wild. Each film will be exclusively distributed by SimEx-Iwerks Entertainment. SimEx-Iwerks and MacGillivray Freeman will also collaborate in producing custom Vertical 4D Experiences.

 

 

November 16, 2018—The Tech Museum of Innovation opened the world’s first IMAX® Dome Theater featuring IMAX with Laser on November 11. The $2.7 million renovation upgrades the 20-year-old, four-story screen theater from 70mm film projection to a groundbreaking 4k laser projection system. The new technology, which is tailored to the IMAX 180-degree dome environment, will enable The Tech to deliver a wide array of digital content with crystal-clear images, vivid colors and powerful, immersive sound.