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Size does matter

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Despite 43 years' experience developing movie theatres worldwide, UA general manager Bob Vallone seemed nervous when the press pack arrived last week to inspect his latest cinema. It turned out he was worried guests would lean against the five-storey wall at one end of the auditorium. Despatched to head off any such incident, publicists warned the visitors that the wall 'is thin and ... expensive'.

Vallone's anxiety isn't entirely unwarranted: the silver, 13.6-metre by 25-metre wall is a specially made screen and accounts for a significant portion of the HK$16 million cost of the Imax theatre. Part of UA's HK$44 million multiplex at the MegaBox mall in Kowloon Bay, it promises 'perfectly coloured, crystal-clear and almost life-like' moving images, he says.

The Imax system allows viewers to be 'part of the film' thanks to larger projection - the 15/70mm negatives are 10 times bigger than the 35mm reels in conventional cinemas - and a screen slightly tilted towards the audience.

Such a mega-screen experience favours today's blockbusters, which bank heavily on special effects. Imax use was largely confined to theme parks and specialist auditoriums after it was invented by Canadian filmmakers in 1967. It wasn't until 2003, when the Imax version of The Matrix Revolutions became a hit, followed by that of the animated film The Polar Express (2004), that the application crossed into mainstream cinema. It's not surprising that the first film to be screened at the new Imax cinema when it officially opens next week

is a showcase of special-effects wizardry - Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.

Although the most costly, the Imax is the latest in a list of specialist screens that have opened recently

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