As Big As Texas
Another theatre in Austin? Don’t we already have something like one theatre seat per Travis County resident already? Well, it may seem that way sometimes (though assuredly not on The Phantom Menace‘s opening night), but even with last year’s spate of cinema openings and groundbreakings, Austin’s newest theatrical outlay promises to be something completely different.
Housed in the currently under-construction Texas History Museum, Austin’s newest theatre — actually two separate theatres under a single roof — matches both the state’s and the museum’s grandiose dreams. The first and larger of the two theatres will be the city’s first IMAX venue. With a 3-D screen measuring approximately 88 by 60 feet and room for an audience of 400, the theatre will tower over even the massive, stadium-style venues that have taken over chain theatres in the last few years.
Slated to open April 26, 2001, Austin’s IMAX will be the 10th such theatre in the state, joining three others in Dallas/Ft. Worth, three in Houston, and one each in Galveston, Lubbock, and San Antonio.
The smaller of the two venues, dubbed the Texas Spirit Theatre, will look more like a tradiitonal theatre than the IMAX, and will be outfitted with a variety of special effects (such as moving seats) for added realism.
“The idea was first brought to us by our architect, who suggested that we have an IMAX like a lot of museums do — and not only an IMAX, but also the smaller theatre which will have these effects inside it,” says museum director Rick Crawford. “So we’re going to have both — the IMAX, which will seat 400 people, and this two-tiered theatre called the Texas Spirit Theatre. For the moment, we’re trying to keep the special effects a secret, so that it will be a surprise.”
Like the museum, the theatres will be overseen by the Texas State Preservation Board, with profits from the theatres returning to the museum.
IMAX films such as the popular Rolling Stones: At the Max and Mission to Mir have fared exceptionally well since the IMAX concept was introduced in 1970. And the oversized screens and 3-D effects have provided a peerless atmosphere for viewing such documentary films as Fires of Kuwait and Island of the Sharks. Think of it as a really, really big Discovery Channel.
Should Austinites expect any Austin-specific IMAX films in the immediate future? Perhaps something along the lines of Guano: The Story of the Austin Bat Bridge?
“Possibly,” says Crawford. “We’ve set up a 501(c)3 [nonprofit corporation] and are in the process of raising money for what will be our signature IMAX film for the museum. That’s about a $6 million outlay, and right about now we’re halfway there. Our plan in the Spirit Theatre is to talk about the spirit of the people that settled Texas and that live here today, but in the IMAX theatre we’re going to talk more about the land and how challenging it was to tame and so on. It’ll be filmed history, but mainly centered around the land.”
This article appears in June 23 • 2000.