The Imax and Sky World, then known as the Force Entertainment Centre, in early 2000 (Photo: Phil Walters\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n
Twenty-eight years ago, Imax\u2019s Aotearoa adventure was almost over before it began. It wasn\u2019t in the plans. That space on Sky World\u2019s third level was reserved for offices and a boutique hotel. Visitors would be able to spend the night \u201cinside the building\u201d, remembers Sky World\u2019s architect Ashley Allen. Construction was about to begin in 1998 when Allen was told Cinema Plus \u2013 the movie company that had opened three Imax screens in Australia to roaring success \u2013 wanted that space.<\/p>\n
So Allen quickly flew to Sydney, toured its Imax theatre, returned home and drafted plans for a 440-seat, five-storey cinema so tall it would poke out of Sky World\u2019s roof. There was one issue: Allen designed a screen too big. \u201cThe Sydney people said, \u2018You have to make your screen smaller than ours,\u2019 because they\u2019d advertised theirs as the largest screen in the southern hemisphere,\u2019\u201d he says. He relented. \u201cWe made it slightly smaller.\u201d<\/p>\n
Auckland\u2019s downsized Imax theatre opened along with Borders, Planet Hollywood, Starbucks and the rest of Sky World in 1999. But attendance at Imax, which was a separate entity from the nearby multi-screen cinema complex, was sluggish from the start. \u201cThere was not a high repeat factor once you\u2019d been once,\u201d says Timpson. \u201cI think Kiwis didn\u2019t know what to make of it so didn\u2019t really approach [it],\u201d says Jim.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Both blame the lack of interest on the small selection of Imax movies available at that time. The same films played month after month, and with just six films screening a year there was little variety to inspire repeat visits. Documentaries aired about Sydney, California, Mount Everest and Egypt. Extreme was a 40-minute compilation of surfing and rock-climbing footage that could induce motion sickness.<\/p>\n
Most Imax movies around this time were short out of necessity. Film stock for Imax costs far more than the normal letterbox format, and cameras are bulky, heavy and loud. Because most films didn\u2019t have a plot, Imax movies felt like \u201ctech demos\u201d, remembers the local film and TV critic Karl Puschmann. Jim agrees. \u201cThe look on some people\u2019s faces when exiting was very much, \u2018OK, well, that can be crossed off the list.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
Other initiatives attempted to draw in more customers. School trips helped fill seats during the day, and 3D experiences like the animated Cyberworld triggered a sense of awe. Film critic Dan Slevin calls those 3D experiences \u201cincredible\u201d. Puschmann loved them too, but remembers the \u201cheavy-ass\u201d goggles ticketholders were forced to wear. Jim has less fond memories. \u201cThe 3D glasses cleaning machine was so ineffective that we ended up just using wet wipes,\u201d he says. \u201cI\u2019ll never forget picking long hairs out of the head straps.\u201d<\/p>\n
The early, \u2018heavy-ass\u2019 Imax goggles (Photo: Reddit)<\/p>\n
By 2002, the lack of interest had taken a toll. Imax\u2019s debts had spiralled to $200 million, reported the Herald<\/a>. The cinema was shuttered amid calls to turn it into a theatre for live shows. What happened in the following four years is a mess of buyouts, mergers and acquisitions. A press release<\/a> about its 2006 reopening, now combined with the cinema complex, includes this impenetrable boardroom-speak sentence: \u201cVillage SKYCITY Cinemas is a joint venture between SKYCITY Leisure \u2013 a subsidiary of SKYCITY Entertainment Group, one of Australia\u2019s leading entertainment and leisure companies, and Village Roadshow.\u201d<\/p>\n By then, Imax was able to deliver full-length movies. That press release also touted \u201can exciting pipeline of digitally remastered Hollywood movies in both 2D and IMAX(R) 3D\u201d. It was true: blockbusters Transformers, Beowulf, and Superman Returns all aired in Imax. Sometimes, the experience was awkward: for Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, cinema-goers were instructed to put their 3D goggles on for the last 20 minutes. But by 2008, Nolan had started experimenting with Imax cameras. The Dark Knight included 30 minutes of footage using the full height of the Imax screen.<\/p>\n Imax seemed to have found its groove here. But by 2013, more problems arose. By then, the screen was nearly 15 years old and needed replacing. That meant opening a trap door in Sky World\u2019s roof so a helicopter could lower a new one down. It also meant the cinema\u2019s 70mm projector was replaced with digital projection equipment. \u201cIt\u2019s easier to handle a computer disk than assemble up to half a tonne of 70mm film for a single feature,\u201d projectionist Bruce Blackley told NZ Herald. (That statement will probably anger all those fans travelling<\/a> to see The Odyssey in one of the 41 Imax cinemas still able to play it in that 70mm format.)<\/p>\n By the end of 2016, Imax\u2019s new landlord James Kwak, who purchased the building in 2011, was having issues with Auckland Council. Sky World was deemed a dangerous building by Auckland Council over \u201cinadequate fire safety systems\u201d, reported RNZ<\/a>. A bizarre agreement was reached: \u201chuman smoke detectors\u201d \u2013 that\u2019s security guards periodically sniffing the air \u2013 were placed in every cinema, including Imax, for five months. It cost Kwak $15,000 per day, RNZ reported.<\/p>\n The drama was followed closely by then RNZ journalist Zac Fleming, who doorstepped Kwak at the top of his own escalator, near the Imax theatre, and attempted to ask him questions about the state of his building. During a brief exchange, James Kwak appeared to deny he was James Kwak. Fleming\u2019s resulting short film (the Kwak escalator encounter is about 10 minutes in) is surely among the finest pieces of video journalism made in this country, right up there with Tova O\u2019Brien\u2019s \u201cIs Paul Goldsmith M\u0101ori?\u201d gotcha<\/a>.<\/p>\n This weekend, The Odyssey\u2019s record-breaking run at Imax seems set to continue. \u201cAdvance bookings have been particularly strong, with many Imax sessions selling out shortly after being released,\u201d an Event Cinemas spokesperson said. When The Spinoff checked, only the worst seats \u2013 right at the front, or in the aisles on the side, those requiring an osteopath to fix your neck afterwards \u2013 were available this weekend.<\/p>\n Cinema fans are making the most of it. They need to. While putting together this story, The Spinoff heard from three different sources that Event Cinemas\u2019 Sky World lease expires in 2028. A spokesperson didn\u2019t respond to multiple requests for comment. But the ongoing decay of Sky World, including an insect plague<\/a> that infiltrated screenings this week, may impact that decision. \u201cBecause of the issues in the building, they may not want to keep it,\u201d says Allen.\u00a0<\/p>\n Insects won\u2019t put Ant Timpson off. He\u2019s yet to see The Odyssey because he\u2019s waiting for his seat, the only one he\u2019ll ever use inside the Imax theatre, to become available. It\u2019s an aisle seat, smack bang in the middle, two rows from the back. It is, he says, the perfect vantage point to take in the country\u2019s biggest screen. \u201cI only go see films there with true Imax aspect ratio,\u201d Timpson says. \u201cEverything else ain\u2019t the real deal.\u201d<\/p>\n *Name changed to protect identity.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Its early days were marred by empty seats and a debt-forced closure, but now, 27 years since opening,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":543794,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[9719,69747,409,111,43,139,69,1066,212245,95371],"class_list":["post-543793","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-cinema","tag-imax","tag-movies","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-pop-culture","tag-sky-world","tag-the-odyssey"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/543793","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=543793"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/543793\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/543794"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=543793"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=543793"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=543793"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}