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Twenty minutes into the showing of Spiderman 3 the buildings of New York combined with coordinated sound effects created a different cinematic experience that felt like you are literally soaring over New York city. Such is the effect induced by watching a motion laden film of the Spiderman 3 type in IMAX.

IMAX has been in the scene for almost a decade. With exhilarating cinematic experiences for its fans and the new thrill provided by the technology it is no surprise that you see questions like the title of this debate "Is IMAX the future of the film industry"

It's a reasonable question. However the answer is a reasonable no. The IMAX technology is not the future of Hollywood film making? There are a few reasons why.

The invention strays too far from the traditional 35mm technology. For movie houses all across the US and the global landscape to adopt it hundreds of millions, if not billions, of dollars in core and collateral expenses have to be made in film production, manufacturing, and services that support that format. Marketing the technology from its current market penetration to the status of "mainstream" will probably cost more.
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To date, content shown in IMAX theaters are largely documentaries. As a moviegoer you can ask yourself this. "Do you want to spend dollars to look at documentaries, which for the most part, are informational, and lack the dynamic elements of Hollywood such as characters, suspense, thrill, e.t.c. This question is relevant because it is you, the guy that pays $10 at the box office that provides the market pull that determines what type of cinema technology generates the best profit. Given the natural answer another question can be posed. "Since IMAX mostly
shows documentaries how many theater fans will patronize it?" Not a lot at all. At its current rate, the content made for IMAX screens is not growing fast enough to push it into the mainstream entertainment landscape. A trip to your local theater will reveal that pictures shown in IMAX are limited to documentaries, special effects laden stories, and action movies.

From a professional standpoint we can ask ourselves. Which way the film industry is headed? By all accounts Hollywood is going digital and not towards the jumbo screen. It is a natural direction that we can see from answering a few questions. Does IMAX have appeal? If so on which side? The supply side (filmmakers, movie studios), or the demand side (the thousands of theater patrons). Has

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