Cinerama
Encyclopedia
Cinerama is the trademarked name for a widescreen
Widescreen
Widescreen images are a variety of aspect ratios used in film, television and computer screens. In film, a widescreen film is any film image with a width-to-height aspect ratio greater than the standard 1.37:1 Academy aspect ratio provided by 35mm film....

 process which works by simultaneously projecting images from three synchronized 35 mm projectors onto a huge, deeply-curved screen, subtending 146° of arc. It is also the trademarked name for the corporation which was formed to market it. It was the first of a number of such processes introduced during the 1950s, when the movie industry was reacting to competition from television. Cinerama was presented to the public as a theatrical event, with reserved seating and printed programs, and audience members often dressed in best attire for the evening.

The Cinerama projection screen, rather than being a continuous surface like most screens, is made of hundreds of individual vertical strips of standard perforated screen material, each about 7/8 inch (~22 mm) wide, with each strip angled to face the audience, so as to prevent light scattered from one end of the deeply-curved screen from reflecting across the screen and washing out the image on the opposite end. The display is accompanied by a high-quality, seven-track discrete directional surround sound system.

The original system involved shooting with three synchronized cameras sharing a single shutter. This was later abandoned in favour of a system using a single camera and 70mm prints. This latter system lost the 146° field of view of the original three-strip system and the resolution was markedly lower. Three-strip Cinerama did not use anamorphic lenses, although two of the systems used to produce the 70mm prints (Ultra Panavision 70
Ultra Panavision 70
Ultra Panavision 70 and MGM Camera 65 were the photographic marketing brands — ca. 1957 to 1966 — that identified movies photographed with Panavision-brand anamorphic lenses using a 65mm negative and 70mm release print...

 and Super Technirama
Technirama
Technirama is a screen process that was used by some film production houses as an alternative to CinemaScope. It was first used in 1957 but fell into disuse in the mid 1960s...

 70) did employ anamorphics. Later, 35mm anamorphic reduction prints were produced for exhibition in theatres with anamorphic Cinemascope-compatible projection lenses.

Process and Production

Cinerama was invented by Fred Waller and commercially developed by Waller and Merian C. Cooper
Merian C. Cooper
Merian Caldwell Cooper was an American aviator, United States Air Force and Polish Air Force officer, adventurer, screenwriter, and film director and producer. His most famous film was the 1933 movie King Kong.-Early life:...

. It was the outgrowth of many years of development. A forerunner was the triple-screen final sequence in the silent Napoléon made in 1927 by Abel Gance
Abel Gance
Abel Gance was a French film director and producer, writer and actor. He is best known for three major silent films: J'accuse , La Roue , and the monumental Napoléon .-Early life:...

; Gance's classic was considered lost in the 1950s, however, known of only by hearsay, and Waller could not have actually seen it. Waller had earlier developed an 11-projector system called "Vitarama" at the Petroleum Industry exhibit in the 1939 New York World's Fair
1939 New York World's Fair
The 1939–40 New York World's Fair, which covered the of Flushing Meadows-Corona Park , was the second largest American world's fair of all time, exceeded only by St. Louis's Louisiana Purchase Exposition of 1904. Many countries around the world participated in it, and over 44 million people...

. A five-camera version, the Waller Gunnery Trainer, was used during the Second World War.

The word "Cinerama" combines cinema
Film
A film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a series of still or moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects...

with panorama
Panorama
A panorama is any wide-angle view or representation of a physical space, whether in painting, drawing, photography, film/video, or a three-dimensional model....

, the origin of all the "-orama" neologisms (the word "panorama" comes from the Greek words "pan", meaning all, and "orama", which translates into that which is seen, a sight, or a spectacle). It has been suggested that Cinerama could have been an intentional anagram of the word American; but an online posting by Dick Babish, describing the meeting at which it was named, says that this is "purely accidental, however delightful."

The photographic system used three interlocked 35 mm cameras equipped with 27 mm lenses, approximately the focal length of the human eye. Each camera photographed one third of the picture shooting in a crisscross pattern, the right camera shooting the left part of the image, the left camera shooting the right part of the image and the center camera shooting straight ahead. The three cameras were mounted as one unit, set at 48 degrees to each other. A single rotating shutter in front of the three lenses assured simultaneous exposure on each of the films. The three angled cameras photographed an image that was not only three times as wide as a standard film but covered 146 degrees of arc, close to the human field of vision, including peripheral vision. The image was photographed six sprocket holes high, rather than the usual four used in other 35 mm processes. The picture was photographed and projected at 26 frames per second rather than the usual 24.

According to film historian Martin Hart, in the original Cinerama system "the camera aspect ratio [was] 2.59:1" with an "optimum screen image, with no architectural constraints, [of] about 2.65:1, with the extreme top and bottom cropped slightly to hide anomalies". He further comments on the unreliability of "numerous websites and other resources that will tell you that Cinerama had an aspect ratio of up to 3:1."

In theaters, Cinerama film was projected from three projection booths arranged in the same crisscross pattern as the cameras. They projected onto a deeply curved screen, the outer thirds of which were made of over 1100 strips of material mounted on "louvers" like a vertical venetian blind, to prevent light projected to each end of the screen from reflecting to the opposite end and washing out the image. This was a big-ticket, reserved-seats spectacle, and the Cinerama projectors were adjusted carefully and operated skillfully. To prevent adjacent images from creating an overilluminated vertical band where they overlapped on the screen, vibrating combs in the projectors, called "jiggolos," alternately blocked the image from one projector and then the other; the overlapping area thus received no more total illumination than the rest of the screen, and the rapidly-alternating images within the overlap smoothed out the visual transition between adjacent image "panels." Great care was taken to match color and brightness when producing the prints. Nevertheless, the seams between panels were usually noticeable. Optical limitations with the design of the camera itself meant that if distant scenes joined perfectly, closer objects did not (parallax
Parallax
Parallax is a displacement or difference in the apparent position of an object viewed along two different lines of sight, and is measured by the angle or semi-angle of inclination between those two lines. The term is derived from the Greek παράλλαξις , meaning "alteration"...

 error). A nearby object might split into two as it crossed the seams. To avoid calling attention to the seams, scenes were often composed with unimportant objects such as trees or posts at the seams, and action was blocked so as to center actors within panels. This gave a distinctly "triptych
Triptych
A triptych , from tri-= "three" + ptysso= "to fold") is a work of art which is divided into three sections, or three carved panels which are hinged together and can be folded shut or displayed open. It is therefore a type of polyptych, the term for all multi-panel works...

-like" appearance to the composition even when the seams themselves were not obvious. It was often necessary to have actors in different sections "cheat" where they looked in order to appear to be looking at each other in the final projected picture. Enthusiasts say the seams were not obtrusive; detractors disagree. Lowell Thomas
Lowell Thomas
Lowell Jackson Thomas was an American writer, broadcaster, and traveler, best known as the man who made Lawrence of Arabia famous...

, an investor in the company with Mike Todd
Mike Todd
Michael Todd was an American theatre and film producer, best known for his 1956 production of Around the World in Eighty Days, which won an Academy Award for Best Picture...

, was still raving about the process in his memoirs thirty years later.

In addition to the visual impact of the image, Cinerama was one of the first processes to use multitrack magnetic sound. The system, developed by Hazard E. Reeves
Hazard E. Reeves
Hazard E. Reeves was a pioneer in sound and sound electronics, and introduced magnetic stereophonic sound to motion pictures...

, one of the Cinerama investors, played back from a full coated 35 mm magnetic film with seven tracks of sound (five behind the screen, two on the side and back of the auditorium with a sound engineer directing the sound between the surround speakers according to a script). The projectors and sound system were synchronized by a system using selsyn motors.

Drawbacks

The Cinerama system had some obvious drawbacks. If one of the films should break, it had to be repaired with a black slug exactly equal to the missing footage. Otherwise, the corresponding frames would have had to be cut from the other three films (the other two picture films plus the soundtrack film) in order to preserve synchronization. The use of zoom lens
Zoom lens
A zoom lens is a mechanical assembly of lens elements for which the focal length can be varied, as opposed to a fixed focal length lens...

es was impossible since the three images would no longer match. Perhaps the greatest limitation of the process is that the picture looks natural only from within a rather limited "sweet spot." Viewed from outside the sweet spot, the picture is annoyingly distorted.

The system also required a bit of improvisation on the part of the film producers. It was not possible to film any scene where any part of the scene was close to the camera as the field of views no longer met exactly. Further, any close up material had an annoying bend in it at the joins. It was also difficult to film actors talking to each other where both were in shot, because when they looked at each other when filmed, the resultant image showed the actors appearing to look past each other, particularly if they appeared on different films. Early directors side stepped this latter problem by only shooting one actor at a time and cutting between them. Later directors worked out where to have the actors looking to create a natural shot. Each actor was required not to look at his fellow actor, but at a cue placed where he needed to look.

Finally, vibrations where the individual cameras and/or projectors vibrate independently, jittering vertical lines present themselves at one third and two thirds of the way across the screen. Future systems such as Circle-Vision 360°
Circle-Vision 360°
Circle-Vision 360° is a film technique, refined by The Walt Disney Company, that uses nine cameras for nine huge screens arranged in a circle. The cameras are usually mounted on top of an automobile for scenes through cities and highways, while films such as The Timekeeper use a static camera and...

 would correct for this by having masked areas between the screens.

The impact these films had on the big screen cannot be assessed from television or video, or even from 'scope prints, which marry the three images together with the seams clearly visible. Because they were designed to be seen on a curved screen, the geometry looks distorted on television; someone walking from left to right appears to approach the camera at an angle, move away at an angle, and then repeat the process on the other side of the screen.

Premiere

The first Cinerama film, This Is Cinerama
This is Cinerama
This is Cinerama is a 1952 full-length film designed to introduce the then-new widescreen process Cinerama, which broadens the aspect ratio so the viewer's peripheral vision is involved...

, premiered on 30 September 1952, at The Broadway Theatre
The Broadway Theatre
The Broadway Theatre is a Broadway theatre located at 1681 Broadway in midtown-Manhattan....

 in New York
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...

. The New York Times judged it to be front-page news. Notables attending included: New York Governor Thomas E. Dewey; violinist Fritz Kreisler
Fritz Kreisler
Friedrich "Fritz" Kreisler was an Austrian-born violinist and composer. One of the most famous violin masters of his or any other day, he was known for his sweet tone and expressive phrasing. Like many great violinists of his generation, he produced a characteristic sound which was immediately...

; James A. Farley; Metropolitan Opera
Metropolitan Opera
The Metropolitan Opera is an opera company, located in New York City. Originally founded in 1880, the company gave its first performance on October 22, 1883. The company is operated by the non-profit Metropolitan Opera Association, with Peter Gelb as general manager...

 manager Rudolph Bing
Rudolph Bing
Sir Rudolf Bing was an Austrian-born opera impresario who worked in Germany, the United Kingdom and the United States, most notably being General Manager of the Metropolitan Opera in New York from 1950 to 1972...

; NBC chairman David Sarnoff
David Sarnoff
David Sarnoff was an American businessman and pioneer of American commercial radio and television. He founded the National Broadcasting Company and throughout most of his career he led the Radio Corporation of America in various capacities from shortly after its founding in 1919 until his...

; CBS chairman William S. Paley
William S. Paley
William S. Paley was the chief executive who built Columbia Broadcasting System from a small radio network into one of the foremost radio and television network operations in the United States.-Early life:...

; Broadway composer Richard Rodgers
Richard Rodgers
Richard Charles Rodgers was an American composer of music for more than 900 songs and for 43 Broadway musicals. He also composed music for films and television. He is best known for his songwriting partnerships with the lyricists Lorenz Hart and Oscar Hammerstein II...

; and Hollywood mogul Louis B. Mayer
Louis B. Mayer
Louis Burt Mayer born Lazar Meir was an American film producer. He is generally cited as the creator of the "star system" within Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in its golden years. Known always as Louis B...

.

Writing in the New York Times a few days after the system premiered, film critic Bosley Crowther
Bosley Crowther
Bosley Crowther was a journalist and author who was film critic for The New York Times for 27 years. His reviews and articles helped shape the careers of actors, directors and screenwriters, though his reviews, at times, were unnecessarily mean...

 wrote:
Somewhat the same sensations that the audience in Koster and Bial's Music Hall
Koster and Bial's Music Hall
Koster and Bial's Music Hall was an important vaudeville theatre in New York, famous in cinema history as the site of the first public exhibition of the Vitascope on April 23, 1896...

 must have felt on that night, years ago, when motion pictures were first publicly flashed on a large screen were probably felt by the people who witnessed the first public showing of Cinerama the other night... the shrill screams of the ladies and the pop-eyed amazement of the men when the huge screen was opened to its full size and a thrillingly realistic ride on a roller-coaster was pictured upon it, attested to the shock of the surprise. People sat back in spellbound wonder as the scenic program flowed across the screen. It was really as though most of them were seeing motion pictures for the first time.... the effect of Cinerama in this its initial display is frankly and exclusively "sensational," in the literal sense of that word.


While observing that the system "may be hailed as providing a new and valid entertainment thrill," Crowther expressed some skeptical reserve, saying "the very size and sweep of the Cinerama screen would seem to render it impractical for the story-telling techniques now employed in film.... It is hard to see how Cinerama can be employed for intimacy. But artists found ways to use the movie. They may well give us something brand-new here."

A technical review by Waldemar Kaempffert
Waldemar Kaempffert
Waldemar Kaempffert was a US science writer and museum director.Waldemar Kaempffert was born and raised in New York City. He received his B.S. from the City College of New York in 1897. Thereafter he was employed by Scientific American, first as a translator , then as managing editor...

 published in the Times the same day hailed the system. He praised the stereophonic sound system and noted that "the fidelity of the sounds was irreproachable. Applause in La Scala
La Scala
La Scala , is a world renowned opera house in Milan, Italy. The theatre was inaugurated on 3 August 1778 and was originally known as the New Royal-Ducal Theatre at La Scala...

 sounded like the clapping of hands and not like pieces of wood slapped together." He noted, however that "There is nothing new about these stereophonic sound effects. The Bell Telephone Laboratories
Bell Labs
Bell Laboratories is the research and development subsidiary of the French-owned Alcatel-Lucent and previously of the American Telephone & Telegraph Company , half-owned through its Western Electric manufacturing subsidiary.Bell Laboratories operates its...

 and Prof. Harold Burris-Meyer of Stevens Institute of Technology
Stevens Institute of Technology
Stevens Institute of Technology is a technological university located on a campus in Hoboken, New Jersey, USA – founded in 1870 with an 1868 bequest from Edwin A. Stevens. It is known for its engineering, science, and technological management curricula.The institute has produced leading...

 demonstrated the underlying principles years ago." Kaempfert also noted:
There is no question that Waller has made a notable advance in cinematography. But it must be said that at the sides of his gigantic screen there is some distortion more noticeable in some parts of the house than in others. The three projections were admirably blended, yet there were visible bands of demarcation on the screen.

Venues

Although existing theatres were adapted to show Cinerama films, in 1961 and 1962 the non-profit Cooper Foundation
Cooper Foundation
The Cooper Foundation of Lincoln, Nebraska, is a charitable and educational organization established in 1934 by Joseph H. Cooper, a long-time theater owner and former partner of Paramount Pictures...

 of Lincoln, Nebraska
Lincoln, Nebraska
The City of Lincoln is the capital and the second-most populous city of the US state of Nebraska. Lincoln is also the county seat of Lancaster County and the home of the University of Nebraska. Lincoln's 2010 Census population was 258,379....

, designed and built three near-identical circular "super-Cinerama" theaters in Denver, Colorado
Denver, Colorado
The City and County of Denver is the capital and the most populous city of the U.S. state of Colorado. Denver is a consolidated city-county, located in the South Platte River Valley on the western edge of the High Plains just east of the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains...

; St. Louis Park, Minnesota
St. Louis Park, Minnesota
As of the census of 2000, there were 44,126 people, 20,782 households, and 10,557 families residing in the city. The population density was 4,122.5 persons per square mile . There were 21,140 housing units at an average density of 1,975.0 per square mile...

 (a Minneapolis suburb); and Omaha, Nebraska
Omaha, Nebraska
Omaha is the largest city in the state of Nebraska, United States, and is the county seat of Douglas County. It is located in the Midwestern United States on the Missouri River, about 20 miles north of the mouth of the Platte River...

. They were considered the finest venues to view Cinerama films. The theaters were designed by architect Richard L. Crowther
Richard L. Crowther
Richard L. Crowther, FAIA was an architect and author who achieved international renown for his progressive holistic compositions, particularly his pioneering designs employing passive solar energy.- Career :...

 of Denver, a Fellow
Fellow
A fellow in the broadest sense is someone who is an equal or a comrade. The term fellow is also used to describe a person, particularly by those in the upper social classes. It is most often used in an academic context: a fellow is often part of an elite group of learned people who are awarded...

 of the American Institute of Architects
American Institute of Architects
The American Institute of Architects is a professional organization for architects in the United States. Headquartered in Washington, D.C., the AIA offers education, government advocacy, community redevelopment, and public outreach to support the architecture profession and improve its public image...

.

The first such theater, the Cooper Theater, built in Denver, featured a 146-degree louvered screen (measuring 105 feet by 35 feet), 814 seats, courtesy lounges on the sides of the theatre for relaxation during intermission (including concessions and smoking facilities), and a ceiling which routed air and heating through small vent slots in order to inhibit noise from the building's ventilation equipment. http://cinerama.topcities.com/ctcooper.htm It was demolished in 1994 to make way for a Barnes and Noble Bookstore.

The second, also called the Cooper Theater, was built in St. Louis Park at 5755 Wayzata Blvd. The last film presented there was Dances with Wolves
Dances with Wolves
Dances with Wolves is a 1990 epic western film directed by and starring Kevin Costner. It is a film adaptation of the 1988 book of the same name by Michael Blake and tells the story of a Union Army Lieutenant who travels to the American frontier to find a military post, and his dealings with a...

in January, 1991, and at that time the Cooper was considered the "flagship" in the Plitt theatre chain. Efforts were made to preserve the theatre, but at the time it did not qualify for national or state historical landmark status (as it was not more than fifty years old) nor were there local preservation laws. It was torn down in 1992. An office complex with a TGI Friday's on the west end of the property is there today.

The third super-Cinerama, the Indian Hills Theater
Indian Hills Theater
The Indian Hills Theater in Omaha, Nebraska, USA, was built in 1962 as a movie theater showcasing films in the Cinerama wide-screen format. The theater's screen was the largest of its type in the United States...

, was built in Omaha, Nebraska
Omaha, Nebraska
Omaha is the largest city in the state of Nebraska, United States, and is the county seat of Douglas County. It is located in the Midwestern United States on the Missouri River, about 20 miles north of the mouth of the Platte River...

. The Indian Hills theater closed on Sept. 28, 2000 as a result of the bankruptcy of Carmike Cinemas
Carmike Cinemas
Carmike Cinemas Inc. is a motion picture exhibitor headquartered in Columbus, Georgia in the United States of America. As of December 31, 2010 it operates or has an interest in 239 theaters with 2,236 screens in 35 states, making it the fourth largest theatre company in the United States.Carmike...

, and the final film presented was the rap music-drama Turn It Up. The theater was demolished on August 20, 2001.

Venues outside the USA included the Regent Plaza
Regent Theatre, Melbourne
The Regent Theatre is a 2162 seat theatre in Melbourne, Australia. It is listed by the National Trust of Australia and is on the Victorian Heritage Register.-History:...

 cinema in Melbourne
Melbourne
Melbourne is the capital and most populous city in the state of Victoria, and the second most populous city in Australia. The Melbourne City Centre is the hub of the greater metropolitan area and the Census statistical division—of which "Melbourne" is the common name. As of June 2009, the greater...

, Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

 http://www.whitehat.com.au/Melbourne/Theatres/Regent.asp, which was adapted for Cinerama in 1960 to show This is Cinerama and Seven Wonders of the World. The Imperial Theatre in Montreal and the Glendale in Toronto were the Canadian homes for Cinerama.

The last Cinerama theater built was the Southcenter Theatre in 1970, opening near the Southcenter Mall of Tukwila, Washington
Tukwila, Washington
Tukwila is a city in King County, Washington, United States. The northern edge of Tukwila borders the city of Seattle. The population was 19,107 at the 2010 census.-History:...

. It closed in 2001.

Cinerama also purchased RKO-Stanley Warner (consisting of theaters formerly owned by Warner Bros.
Warner Bros.
Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc., also known as Warner Bros. Pictures or simply Warner Bros. , is an American producer of film and television entertainment.One of the major film studios, it is a subsidiary of Time Warner, with its headquarters in Burbank,...

 and RKO Pictures
RKO Pictures
RKO Pictures is an American film production and distribution company. As RKO Radio Pictures Inc., it was one of the Big Five studios of Hollywood's Golden Age. The business was formed after the Keith-Albee-Orpheum theater chains and Joseph P...

) in 1970.

Single-Film "Cinerama"

Rising costs of making three-camera widescreen films caused Cinerama to stop making such films in their original form shortly after the first release of How the West Was Won
How the West Was Won (film)
How the West Was Won is a 1962 American epic Western film. The picture was one of the last "old-fashioned" epic films made by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer to enjoy great success. It follows four generations of a family as they move ever westward, from western New York state to the Pacific Ocean...

. The use of Ultra Panavision 70
Ultra Panavision 70
Ultra Panavision 70 and MGM Camera 65 were the photographic marketing brands — ca. 1957 to 1966 — that identified movies photographed with Panavision-brand anamorphic lenses using a 65mm negative and 70mm release print...

 for certain scenes (such as the river raft sequence) later printed onto the three Cinerama panels, proved that a more or less satisfactory wide screen image could be photographed without the three cameras. Consequently, Cinerama discontinued the three film process, with the exception of a single theater (McVickers' Cinerama Theatre in Chicago) showing Cinerama's Russian Adventure, an American-Soviet co-production culled from footage of several Soviet films shot in the rival Soviet three-film format known as Kinopanorama
Kinopanorama
Kinopanorama is a three-lens, three-film widescreen film format. Although Kinopanorama was initially known as Panorama in the Soviet Union the name was later revised to include its current name prior to the premier screenings in Moscow in 1958. In some countries, including Cuba, Greece, Norway and...

 in 1966.

Cinerama continued through the rest of the 1960s as a brand name used initially with the Ultra Panavision 70 widescreen process (which yielded a similar 2.76 aspect ratio to the original Cinerama, although it did not simulate the 146 degree field of view.) Optically "rectified" prints and special lenses were used to project the 70 mm prints onto the curved screen. The films shot in Ultra Panavision for single lens Cinerama presentation were It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World
It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World
It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World is a 1963 American comedy film produced and directed by Stanley Kramer about the madcap pursuit of $350,000 in stolen cash by a diverse and colorful group of strangers...

(1963), Battle of the Bulge
Battle of the Bulge (film)
Battle of the Bulge is a widescreen war film produced in Spain that was released in 1965. It was directed by Ken Annakin. It starred Henry Fonda, Robert Shaw, Telly Savalas, Robert Ryan, Dana Andrews and Charles Bronson...

(1965), The Greatest Story Ever Told
The Greatest Story Ever Told
The Greatest Story Ever Told is a 1965 American epic film produced and directed by George Stevens and distributed by United Artists. It is a retelling of the story of Jesus Christ, from the Nativity through the Resurrection. This film is notable for its large ensemble cast and for being the last...

(1965), The Hallelujah Trail
The Hallelujah Trail
The Hallelujah Trail is a 1965 Western spoof directed by John Sturges and starring Burt Lancaster, Lee Remick, Brian Keith, Donald Pleasence, and Martin Landau, amongst others.-Plot synopsis:...

(1965) and Khartoum
Khartoum (film)
Khartoum is a 1966 film written by Robert Ardrey and directed by Basil Dearden. It stars Charlton Heston as General Gordon and Laurence Olivier as the Mahdi and is based on Gordon's defence of the Sudanese city of Khartoum from the forces of the Mahdist army during the Siege of Khartoum.Khartoum...

(1966).

The less wide but still spectacular Super Panavision 70
Super Panavision 70
Super Panavision 70 was the marketing brand name used to identify movies photographed with Panavision 70 mm spherical optics between 1959 and 1983.-History:...

 was used to film the Cinerama presentations Grand Prix (1966), 2001: A Space Odyssey
2001: A Space Odyssey (film)
2001: A Space Odyssey is a 1968 epic science fiction film produced and directed by Stanley Kubrick, and co-written by Kubrick and Arthur C. Clarke, partially inspired by Clarke's short story The Sentinel...

(1968) (which also featured scenes shot in Todd-AO
Todd-AO
Todd-AO is a post-production company founded in 1953, providing sound-related services to the motion picture and television industries. The company operates three facilities in the Los Angeles area.-History:...

 and MCS-70) , Ice Station Zebra
Ice Station Zebra (film)
Ice Station Zebra is a 1968 action film directed by John Sturges, starring Rock Hudson, Patrick McGoohan, Ernest Borgnine, and Jim Brown. The screenplay by Alistair MacLean, Douglas Heyes, Harry Julian Fink, and W.R. Burnett is loosely based upon MacLean's 1963 novel of the same name. Both have...

(1968) and Krakatoa, East of Java
Krakatoa, East of Java
Krakatoa, East of Java is a movie starring Maximilian Schell and Brian Keith. This film was nominated for Academy Award for Best Visual Effects.-Plot:...

(1969) (which also featured scenes shot in Todd-AO
Todd-AO
Todd-AO is a post-production company founded in 1953, providing sound-related services to the motion picture and television industries. The company operates three facilities in the Los Angeles area.-History:...

).

The other 70mm systems used for single film Cinerama (Sovscope 70 and MCS-70) were similar to Super Panavision 70
Super Panavision 70
Super Panavision 70 was the marketing brand name used to identify movies photographed with Panavision 70 mm spherical optics between 1959 and 1983.-History:...

. Some films were shot in the somewhat lower resolution Super Technirama
Technirama
Technirama is a screen process that was used by some film production houses as an alternative to CinemaScope. It was first used in 1957 but fell into disuse in the mid 1960s...

 70 process for Cinerama release, including Circus World
Circus World (film)
Circus World, also known as Samuel Bronston's Circus World, is a 1964 drama film made by the independent production company Samuel Bronston Productions and distributed by Paramount Pictures...

(1964) and Custer of the West
Custer of the West
Custer of the West is a 1967 American Western film directed by Robert Siodmak. It tells a highly fictionalised version of the life and death of George Armstrong Custer. It was directed by Robert Siodmak and starring Robert Shaw as Custer, Robert Ryan and Mary Ure...

(1967).

In the late 1960s and early 1970s, the Cinerama name was used as a film distribution company, ironically reissuing single strip 70 mm and 35 mm Cinemascope
CinemaScope
CinemaScope was an anamorphic lens series used for shooting wide screen movies from 1953 to 1967. Its creation in 1953, by the president of 20th Century-Fox, marked the beginning of the modern anamorphic format in both principal photography and movie projection.The anamorphic lenses theoretically...

 reduction prints of This Is Cinerama
This is Cinerama
This is Cinerama is a 1952 full-length film designed to introduce the then-new widescreen process Cinerama, which broadens the aspect ratio so the viewer's peripheral vision is involved...

(1972).

Cinerama today

The Cinerama company exists today as an entity of the Pacific Theatres
Pacific Theatres
Pacific Theatres is a chain of movie theaters in the Los Angeles area of California. Pacific Theatres is owned by Decurion Corporation which also owns ArcLight Cinema Company .- Developments : The company has some 300 movie screens in California...

 chain. In recent years, hard work by dedicated enthusiasts has made possible showings of surviving and new Cinerama prints, notably at:
  • the Pictureville Cinema
    Pictureville Cinema
    Pictureville Cinema is a cinema auditorium located within the National Media Museum in Bradford, West Yorkshire, England.Pictureville is one of the best equipped cinemas in the world. It is equipped for 35 mm, 70 mm, 2K resolution and Cinerama projection. The cinema features Dolby Digital EX, DTS...

    at the National Media Museum in Bradford
    Bradford
    Bradford lies at the heart of the City of Bradford, a metropolitan borough of West Yorkshire, in Northern England. It is situated in the foothills of the Pennines, west of Leeds, and northwest of Wakefield. Bradford became a municipal borough in 1847, and received its charter as a city in 1897...

    , England beginning in June 1993
  • the New Neon Cinema in Dayton, Ohio
    Dayton, Ohio
    Dayton is the 6th largest city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Montgomery County, the fifth most populous county in the state. The population was 141,527 at the 2010 census. The Dayton Metropolitan Statistical Area had a population of 841,502 in the 2010 census...

     from 1996 to 1999
  • the refurbished Seattle Cinerama
    Seattle Cinerama
    The Seattle Cinerama Theatre is a landmark movie theater located in the Belltown neighborhood of Seattle, Washington in the United States of America...

    in Seattle beginning in 1999
  • Pacific Theatres’ Cinerama Dome
    Cinerama Dome
    Pacific Theatres' Cinerama Dome is a movie theater located at 6360 Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood, California. Designed to present widescreen, 70mm Cinerama films, it opened November 7, 1963. Today it continues as a leading first run theater.- History :...

    in Hollywood beginning in 2002.

In 1998, Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen purchased Seattle's Martin Cinerama, which then underwent a major restoration/upgrade. In 1999 it reopened with a special multi-day program featuring screenings of most of the major Cinerama classics, which drew patrons from around the world.

As of 2004, the Pictureville Cinema, Martin Cinerama and Cinerama Dome continue to hold periodic screenings of three-projector Cinerama movies. It is worth noting that the Cinerama Dome was designed for the three-projector system but never actually had it installed until recent years as it opened with the first of the single film 70 mm Cinerama films, It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World
It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World
It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World is a 1963 American comedy film produced and directed by Stanley Kramer about the madcap pursuit of $350,000 in stolen cash by a diverse and colorful group of strangers...

.
A 2003 documentary, Cinerama Adventure, took a look back at the history of the Cinerama process, as well as digitally recreating the Cinerama experience via clips of true Cinerama films (using transfers from original Cinerama prints). And Turner Entertainment
Turner Entertainment
Turner Entertainment Company, Inc. is an American media company founded by Ted Turner. Now owned by Time Warner, the company is largely responsible for overseeing its library for worldwide distribution Turner Entertainment Company, Inc. (commonly known as Turner Entertainment Co.) is an American...

 (via Warner Bros.
Warner Bros.
Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc., also known as Warner Bros. Pictures or simply Warner Bros. , is an American producer of film and television entertainment.One of the major film studios, it is a subsidiary of Time Warner, with its headquarters in Burbank,...

) has struck new Cinerama prints of How the West Was Won
How the West Was Won (film)
How the West Was Won is a 1962 American epic Western film. The picture was one of the last "old-fashioned" epic films made by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer to enjoy great success. It follows four generations of a family as they move ever westward, from western New York state to the Pacific Ocean...

for exhibition in true Cinerama theatres around the world.

Cinerama established the standard for all of the large screen formats that followed. Its successors, Todd-AO
Todd-AO
Todd-AO is a post-production company founded in 1953, providing sound-related services to the motion picture and television industries. The company operates three facilities in the Los Angeles area.-History:...

, CinemaScope
CinemaScope
CinemaScope was an anamorphic lens series used for shooting wide screen movies from 1953 to 1967. Its creation in 1953, by the president of 20th Century-Fox, marked the beginning of the modern anamorphic format in both principal photography and movie projection.The anamorphic lenses theoretically...

, and the various 70 mm formats, all attempted to equal or surpass its grandeur while avoiding its problems to greater or lesser degrees of success. In movie theaters today the large format IMAX
IMAX
IMAX is a motion picture film format and a set of proprietary cinema projection standards created by the Canadian company IMAX Corporation. IMAX has the capacity to record and display images of far greater size and resolution than conventional film systems...

 system continues the tradition, although the screen is taller and often less wide. It offers short documentaries and select main-stream feature films to audiences on huge screens in an immersive cinema experience.

In 2008 a Blu-ray
Blu-ray Disc
Blu-ray Disc is an optical disc storage medium designed to supersede the DVD format. The plastic disc is 120 mm in diameter and 1.2 mm thick, the same size as DVDs and CDs. Blu-ray Discs contain 25 GB per layer, with dual layer discs being the norm for feature-length video discs...

 format video disc of How The West Was Won was released offering a recreation of Cinerama for home viewing. Computers were used to seamlessly stitch the three images together so that the resulting image does not have the visible seams of older versions. Furthermore, as a second viewing option, 3D mapping technology was used to produce an image that approximates the curved screen, called "SmileBox".

Cinerama features

Although most of the films produced using the original three-strip Cinerama process were full feature length or longer, they were mostly travelogues or episodic documentaries such as This Is Cinerama
This is Cinerama
This is Cinerama is a 1952 full-length film designed to introduce the then-new widescreen process Cinerama, which broadens the aspect ratio so the viewer's peripheral vision is involved...

(1952), the first film shot in Cinerama. Other travelogues presented in Cinerama were Cinerama Holiday (1955), Seven Wonders of the World (1955), Search for Paradise (1957) and South Seas Adventure (1958). There was also one commercial short, Renault Dauphin (1960).

Even as the Cinerama travelogues were beginning to lose audiences in the late 50s, the spectacular travelogue Windjammer (1958) was released in a competing process called Cinemiracle
Cinemiracle
Cinemiracle was a widescreen cinema format competing with Cinerama developed in the 1950s. It was ultimately unsuccessful, with only a single film produced and released in the format. Like Cinerama it used 3 cameras to capture a 2.59:1 image. Cinemiracle used two mirrors to give the left and right...

 which claimed to have less noticeable dividing lines on the screen thanks to the reflection of the side images off of mirrors (this also allowed all three projectors to be in the same booth). Due to the small number of Cinemiracle theatres, specially converted prints of Windjammer were shown in Cinerama theaters in cities which did not have Cinemiracle theaters, and ultimately Cinerama bought up the process.

Only two films with traditional story lines were made, The Wonderful World of the Brothers Grimm
The Wonderful World of the Brothers Grimm
The Wonderful World of the Brothers Grimm is a 1962 American film directed by Henry Levin and George Pal. The latter was the producer and also in charge of the stop motion animation. The film was one of the highest grossing films of 1962. It won one Oscar and was nominated for three additional...

and How the West Was Won
How the West Was Won (film)
How the West Was Won is a 1962 American epic Western film. The picture was one of the last "old-fashioned" epic films made by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer to enjoy great success. It follows four generations of a family as they move ever westward, from western New York state to the Pacific Ocean...

. In order to make these films compatible with single film systems for later standard releases, they were shot at 24 frame/s, not the 26 frame/s of traditional Cinerama.

The following feature films have been advertised as being presented "in Cinerama":
Year Title Notes
1952 This is Cinerama
This is Cinerama
This is Cinerama is a 1952 full-length film designed to introduce the then-new widescreen process Cinerama, which broadens the aspect ratio so the viewer's peripheral vision is involved...

3-Strip Cinerama; re-released in 1972 in 70 mm Cinerama
1955 Cinerama Holiday 3-Strip Cinerama
1956 Seven Wonders of the World 3-Strip Cinerama
1957 Search for Paradise 3-Strip Cinerama
1958 South Seas Adventure 3-Strip Cinerama
Windjammer originally filmed in 3-strip Cinemiracle
Cinemiracle
Cinemiracle was a widescreen cinema format competing with Cinerama developed in the 1950s. It was ultimately unsuccessful, with only a single film produced and released in the format. Like Cinerama it used 3 cameras to capture a 2.59:1 image. Cinemiracle used two mirrors to give the left and right...

; later exhibited in Cinerama
1962 The Wonderful World of the Brothers Grimm
The Wonderful World of the Brothers Grimm
The Wonderful World of the Brothers Grimm is a 1962 American film directed by Henry Levin and George Pal. The latter was the producer and also in charge of the stop motion animation. The film was one of the highest grossing films of 1962. It won one Oscar and was nominated for three additional...

3-Strip Cinerama
Holiday in Spain a re-edited version of Scent of Mystery
Scent of Mystery
Scent of Mystery is a 1960 mystery film that featured the one and only use of Smell-O-Vision, a system that timed odors to points in the film's plot. It was the first film in which aromas were integral to the story, providing important details to the audience...

; originally filmed in Todd-70; converted to 3-strip Cinemiracle and exhibited in both Cinemiracle and Cinerama
How The West Was Won
How the West Was Won (film)
How the West Was Won is a 1962 American epic Western film. The picture was one of the last "old-fashioned" epic films made by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer to enjoy great success. It follows four generations of a family as they move ever westward, from western New York state to the Pacific Ocean...

3-strip Cinerama, although some sequences were filmed in Ultra Panavision 70
Ultra Panavision 70
Ultra Panavision 70 and MGM Camera 65 were the photographic marketing brands — ca. 1957 to 1966 — that identified movies photographed with Panavision-brand anamorphic lenses using a 65mm negative and 70mm release print...

1963 The Best of Cinerama 3-Strip Cinerama
It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World
It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World
It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World is a 1963 American comedy film produced and directed by Stanley Kramer about the madcap pursuit of $350,000 in stolen cash by a diverse and colorful group of strangers...

filmed in Ultra Panavision 70
Ultra Panavision 70
Ultra Panavision 70 and MGM Camera 65 were the photographic marketing brands — ca. 1957 to 1966 — that identified movies photographed with Panavision-brand anamorphic lenses using a 65mm negative and 70mm release print...

, presented in 70 mm Cinerama
1964 Circus World
Circus World (film)
Circus World, also known as Samuel Bronston's Circus World, is a 1964 drama film made by the independent production company Samuel Bronston Productions and distributed by Paramount Pictures...

filmed in Super Technirama 70
Super Technirama 70
Super Technirama 70 was the marketing name for films which were photographed in the 35 mm 8-perf Technirama process and optically enlarged to 70 mm 5-perf prints for deluxe exhibition....

, presented in 70 mm Cinerama
Mediterranean Holiday filmed in MCS-70; presented in 70 mm Cinerama
1965 The Golden Head
The Golden Head
The Golden Head is a 1964 American-Hungarian drama film directed by Richard Thorpe and James Hill and starring George Sanders, Buddy Hackett, Jess Conrad, Lorraine Power and Robert Coote.-Synopsis:...

filmed in Super Technirama 70
Super Technirama 70
Super Technirama 70 was the marketing name for films which were photographed in the 35 mm 8-perf Technirama process and optically enlarged to 70 mm 5-perf prints for deluxe exhibition....

; presented in 70 mm Cinerama in Europe only
La Fayette
La Fayette (film)
La Fayette is a 1961 French-Italian biographical film directed by Jean Dréville and starring Pascale Audret, Jack Hawkins and Orson Welles. The film depicts the life of Gilbert du Motier, marquis de Lafayette, in particular his role in the American War of Independence.-Cast:* Pascale Audret -...

filmed in Super Technirama 70
Super Technirama 70
Super Technirama 70 was the marketing name for films which were photographed in the 35 mm 8-perf Technirama process and optically enlarged to 70 mm 5-perf prints for deluxe exhibition....

; presented in 70 mm Cinerama in Europe only
Chronicle of Flaming Years
Chronicle of Flaming Years
Chronicle of Flaming Years is a 1961 Soviet drama film directed by Yuliya Solntseva. Solntseva won the award for Best Director at the 1961 Cannes Film Festival. -Cast:* Boris Andreyev* Antonina Bogdanova - * Zinaida Kiriyenko...

filmed in Sovscope 70; presented in 70 mm Cinerama in Europe only
The Black Tulip
The Black Tulip
The Black Tulip is a historical novel written by Alexandre Dumas, père.-Plot:The story begins with a historical event — the 1672 lynching of the Dutch Grand Pensionary Johan de Witt and his brother Cornelis, by a wild mob of their own countrymen — considered by many as one of the most painful...

filmed in MCS-70; presented in 70 mm Cinerama in Europe only
The Greatest Story Ever Told
The Greatest Story Ever Told
The Greatest Story Ever Told is a 1965 American epic film produced and directed by George Stevens and distributed by United Artists. It is a retelling of the story of Jesus Christ, from the Nativity through the Resurrection. This film is notable for its large ensemble cast and for being the last...

filmed in Ultra Panavision 70
Ultra Panavision 70
Ultra Panavision 70 and MGM Camera 65 were the photographic marketing brands — ca. 1957 to 1966 — that identified movies photographed with Panavision-brand anamorphic lenses using a 65mm negative and 70mm release print...

; presented in 70 mm Cinerama
The Hallelujah Trail
The Hallelujah Trail
The Hallelujah Trail is a 1965 Western spoof directed by John Sturges and starring Burt Lancaster, Lee Remick, Brian Keith, Donald Pleasence, and Martin Landau, amongst others.-Plot synopsis:...

filmed in Ultra Panavision 70
Ultra Panavision 70
Ultra Panavision 70 and MGM Camera 65 were the photographic marketing brands — ca. 1957 to 1966 — that identified movies photographed with Panavision-brand anamorphic lenses using a 65mm negative and 70mm release print...

; presented in 70 mm Cinerama
Battle of the Bulge
Battle of the Bulge (film)
Battle of the Bulge is a widescreen war film produced in Spain that was released in 1965. It was directed by Ken Annakin. It starred Henry Fonda, Robert Shaw, Telly Savalas, Robert Ryan, Dana Andrews and Charles Bronson...

filmed in Ultra Panavision 70
Ultra Panavision 70
Ultra Panavision 70 and MGM Camera 65 were the photographic marketing brands — ca. 1957 to 1966 — that identified movies photographed with Panavision-brand anamorphic lenses using a 65mm negative and 70mm release print...

; presented in 70 mm Cinerama
1966 Cinerama's Russian Adventure filmed in Kinopanorama
Kinopanorama
Kinopanorama is a three-lens, three-film widescreen film format. Although Kinopanorama was initially known as Panorama in the Soviet Union the name was later revised to include its current name prior to the premier screenings in Moscow in 1958. In some countries, including Cuba, Greece, Norway and...

, presented in both 3-strip and 70 mm Cinerama
Khartoum
Khartoum (film)
Khartoum is a 1966 film written by Robert Ardrey and directed by Basil Dearden. It stars Charlton Heston as General Gordon and Laurence Olivier as the Mahdi and is based on Gordon's defence of the Sudanese city of Khartoum from the forces of the Mahdist army during the Siege of Khartoum.Khartoum...

filmed in Ultra Panavision 70
Ultra Panavision 70
Ultra Panavision 70 and MGM Camera 65 were the photographic marketing brands — ca. 1957 to 1966 — that identified movies photographed with Panavision-brand anamorphic lenses using a 65mm negative and 70mm release print...

; presented in 70 mm Cinerama
Grand Prix filmed in Super Panavision 70
Super Panavision 70
Super Panavision 70 was the marketing brand name used to identify movies photographed with Panavision 70 mm spherical optics between 1959 and 1983.-History:...

 with some sequences in MCS-70; presented in 70 mm Cinerama
1967 Custer of the West
Custer of the West
Custer of the West is a 1967 American Western film directed by Robert Siodmak. It tells a highly fictionalised version of the life and death of George Armstrong Custer. It was directed by Robert Siodmak and starring Robert Shaw as Custer, Robert Ryan and Mary Ure...

filmed in Super Technirama 70
Super Technirama 70
Super Technirama 70 was the marketing name for films which were photographed in the 35 mm 8-perf Technirama process and optically enlarged to 70 mm 5-perf prints for deluxe exhibition....

; presented in 70 mm Cinerama
1968 2001: A Space Odyssey
2001: A Space Odyssey (film)
2001: A Space Odyssey is a 1968 epic science fiction film produced and directed by Stanley Kubrick, and co-written by Kubrick and Arthur C. Clarke, partially inspired by Clarke's short story The Sentinel...

filmed in Super Panavision 70
Super Panavision 70
Super Panavision 70 was the marketing brand name used to identify movies photographed with Panavision 70 mm spherical optics between 1959 and 1983.-History:...

 with some scenes in Todd-AO and MCS-70; presented in 70 mm Cinerama
Ice Station Zebra
Ice Station Zebra (film)
Ice Station Zebra is a 1968 action film directed by John Sturges, starring Rock Hudson, Patrick McGoohan, Ernest Borgnine, and Jim Brown. The screenplay by Alistair MacLean, Douglas Heyes, Harry Julian Fink, and W.R. Burnett is loosely based upon MacLean's 1963 novel of the same name. Both have...

filmed in Super Panavision 70
Super Panavision 70
Super Panavision 70 was the marketing brand name used to identify movies photographed with Panavision 70 mm spherical optics between 1959 and 1983.-History:...

; presented in 70 mm Cinerama
1969 Krakatoa, East of Java
Krakatoa, East of Java
Krakatoa, East of Java is a movie starring Maximilian Schell and Brian Keith. This film was nominated for Academy Award for Best Visual Effects.-Plot:...

filmed in Super Panavision 70
Super Panavision 70
Super Panavision 70 was the marketing brand name used to identify movies photographed with Panavision 70 mm spherical optics between 1959 and 1983.-History:...

 and Todd-AO
Todd-AO
Todd-AO is a post-production company founded in 1953, providing sound-related services to the motion picture and television industries. The company operates three facilities in the Los Angeles area.-History:...

; presented in 70 mm Cinerama
1970 Song of Norway
Song of Norway (film)
Song of Norway is a 1970 film adaptation of the successful operetta of the same name, directed by Andrew L. Stone.Like the play from which it derived, the film tells of the early struggles of composer Edvard Grieg and his attempts to develop an authentic Norwegian national music...

filmed in Super Panavision 70
Super Panavision 70
Super Panavision 70 was the marketing brand name used to identify movies photographed with Panavision 70 mm spherical optics between 1959 and 1983.-History:...

; presented in 70 mm Cinerama in UK and Canada only
1972 The Great Waltz
The Great Waltz (film)
The Great Waltz is a 1938 American biographical film based very loosely on the life of Johann Strauss II. It starred Luise Rainer, Fernand Gravet and Miliza Korjus. Rainer received top billing at the producer's insistence, but her role is comparatively minor as Strauss' wife, Poldi Volgelhuber...

filmed in 35 mm Panavision
Panavision
Panavision is an American motion picture equipment company specializing in cameras and lenses, based in Woodland Hills, California. Formed by Robert Gottschalk as a small partnership to create anamorphic projection lenses during the widescreen boom in the 1950s, Panavision expanded its product...

, presented in 70 mm Cinerama in UK only
1974 Run, Run Joe! filmed in Todd-AO 35, presented in 70 mm Cinerama in UK only

"Cinerama" video stretching mode

RCA uses the word "Cinerama" to refer to a display mode which fills a 16:9 video screen with 4:3 video with, in the words of the manufacturer, "little distortion." Manuals for products offering this mode give no detailed explanation. One online posting says it consists of "a slight cropping at the top & bottom combined with a slight stretch at only the sides," and praises it. The posting suggests that other vendors provide a similar function under different names. Mitsubishi calls it "stretch" mode. The RCA Scenium TV also has a "stretch mode" as well it is a 4:3 picture stretched straight across.

There is no obvious connection between this video mode and any of the Cinerama motion picture processes. It is not clear why the name is used, unless the nonlinear stretch is vaguely evocative of a curved screen. (Ironically, some widescreen cinema processes—not Cinerama—displayed a fault known as "anamorphic mumps," which consisted of a lateral stretch of objects closer to the camera).

In the U.S., RCA does not appear to have registered the word "Cinerama" as a trademark; conversely, a number of trademarks on "Cinerama," e.g. SN 74270575, are still "live" and held by Cinerama, Inc.

See also

  • List of 70 mm films
  • List of film formats
  • Super Panavision 70
    Super Panavision 70
    Super Panavision 70 was the marketing brand name used to identify movies photographed with Panavision 70 mm spherical optics between 1959 and 1983.-History:...

  • Super Technirama 70
    Super Technirama 70
    Super Technirama 70 was the marketing name for films which were photographed in the 35 mm 8-perf Technirama process and optically enlarged to 70 mm 5-perf prints for deluxe exhibition....

  • Todd-AO
    Todd-AO
    Todd-AO is a post-production company founded in 1953, providing sound-related services to the motion picture and television industries. The company operates three facilities in the Los Angeles area.-History:...

  • Ultra Panavision 70
    Ultra Panavision 70
    Ultra Panavision 70 and MGM Camera 65 were the photographic marketing brands — ca. 1957 to 1966 — that identified movies photographed with Panavision-brand anamorphic lenses using a 65mm negative and 70mm release print...

  • Kinopanorama
    Kinopanorama
    Kinopanorama is a three-lens, three-film widescreen film format. Although Kinopanorama was initially known as Panorama in the Soviet Union the name was later revised to include its current name prior to the premier screenings in Moscow in 1958. In some countries, including Cuba, Greece, Norway and...

  • Cinerama Dome
    Cinerama Dome
    Pacific Theatres' Cinerama Dome is a movie theater located at 6360 Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood, California. Designed to present widescreen, 70mm Cinerama films, it opened November 7, 1963. Today it continues as a leading first run theater.- History :...

  • Seattle Cinerama
    Seattle Cinerama
    The Seattle Cinerama Theatre is a landmark movie theater located in the Belltown neighborhood of Seattle, Washington in the United States of America...

  • Cinerama Releasing Corporation
    Cinerama Releasing Corporation
    Cinerama Releasing Corporation, or CRC, is a defunct motion picture company established in 1952 that originally released films produced by its namesake parent company for major Hollywood studios Cinerama Releasing Corporation, or CRC, is a defunct motion picture company established in 1952 that...

  • IMAX
    IMAX
    IMAX is a motion picture film format and a set of proprietary cinema projection standards created by the Canadian company IMAX Corporation. IMAX has the capacity to record and display images of far greater size and resolution than conventional film systems...


External links

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