"IMAX" on Disney Plus

[Geoff Jones]

Disney Plus to Launch 13 Marvel Movies in Imax Expanded Aspect Ratio

Marvel Cinematic Universe fans are soon going to be able to see even more of the Avengers assembling on Disney Plus.

Starting this Friday (Nov. 12), Disney Plus subscribers will be able to stream 13 Marvel movies in Imax’s Expanded Aspect Ratio — which offers up to 26% more screen picture compared with conventional widescreen format. Disney Plus is the first major streaming service to provide the Imax Enhanced features for at-home viewing (although of course without Imax’s gargantuan screens).

The 13 titles available in the Imax-enhanced format include the Disney Plus premiere of “Shang-Chi and the Legend of The Ten Rings.” on Nov. 12. The others are “Iron Man,” “Guardians of the Galaxy,” “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2,” “Captain America: Civil War,” “Doctor Strange,” “Thor: Ragnarok,” “Black Panther,” “Avengers: Infinity War,” “Ant-Man and the Wasp,” “Captain Marvel,” “Avengers: Endgame” and “Black Widow.” (According to Disney, the availability of some titles will vary by market.)

Every Marvel Studios Post-Credits Scene, Ranked From Worst to Best
The launch of Imax Enhanced on Disney Plus is timed for the Mouse House’s weeklong Disney Plus Day event, marking the two-year anniversary of the streaming service’s original launch. Among the promos: Disney Plus is available for $1.99 for the first month to new and returning subscribers who sign up through Sunday.

Imax’s Expanded Aspect Ratio is 1:90:1, which means that during certain scenes “more of the action is visible on screen, just as the filmmakers intended,” the company said. Imax provided a graphic showing the expanded picture as it will appear on Disney Plus (with the portions above and below the blue lines representing the Imax enhancement):


In the future, the companies said, Disney Plus’ collaboration with Imax provided additional audio and visual enhancements, including immersive Imax signature sound by DTS.

“Disney, Marvel Studios, and Imax have collaborated for years to bring the world’s most popular films to the big screen, and on Friday we’ll start to bring Imax technology to subscribers with Imax Enhanced viewing in the Disney plus app,” Michael Paull, president of Disney Plus and ESPN Plus, said in a statement.

Since Imax and Marvel Studios first partnered in 2010, the superhero movies have generated more than $1.6 billion across Imax screens globally — making the MCU the highest-grossing franchise in Imax history.

“For more than a decade, Imax has helped filmmakers take fans across the Marvel Cinematic Universe in theaters and now that epic journey crosses into a new world: the home,” Imax CEO Rich Gelfond said in a statement.

Disney is scheduled to report earnings for its fiscal Q4 2021 quarter on Wednesday, Nov. 10. CEO Bob Chapek previously said Disney Plus subscriber growth will slow down in the September quarter. As of July 3, the streamer had 116 million subscribers worldwide, about 40% of which were Disney Plus Hotstar subscribers in India, Indonesia and Malaysia.

Ya gotta hand it to Imax. They've figured out a way to make money off the concept of showing "less wide" movies. 70MM film stock resolution be damned.

Anecdotally, the responses I've seen on social media are ecstatic. People are begging for more "Imax." I wonder if they're just excited to decrease the black bars on their TVs and mobile phones?

[Bobby Henderson]

"IMAX-enhanced" features for home viewing? Via streaming? Jeez, I feel like America is just drowning in stupidity with people going along believing that bullshit sales pitch. It's no wonder companies in technology, science and engineering have to import so many foreign-born workers.

Changing aspect ratios is nothing special, particularly with movies shot (mostly) with digital cameras. Depending on the camera system used, making the image taller (and trimming the black bars) might reveal a little more image, if it was rendered with a taller HDTV shape in the final digital intermediate.

In the case of a camera like the Arri Alexa65 the act of making the image taller might result in the left and right edges of the picture being cropped for a modest pan-and-scan effect. This is already happening to some degree with Alexa65-shot productions. Many are using 1.25x anamorphic lenses to get some of that anamorphic 'scope look, but the movies aren't getting released with a 2.76:1 aspect ratio. Yet some of them have the audacity to use the "Filmed in Ultra Panavision 70" logo in their end credits. Regular movie-goers won't make any sense of it and it insults the intelligence of people technically familiar with UP70.

Yeah, we're drowning in stupid.

[Mike Blakesley]

Well just the fact that people are willing to watch movies on their phones should confirm that.

It's more like we're drowning in "it's good enough."

I was thinking about this when I was streaming some music at work the other night and it just stopped cold. No explanation, it just quit. A few weeks ago, I was listening to an LP via stream, and I couldn't get it to play the album songs in the correct order, even though "shuffle" was turned off.

I never had either one of those problems with CDs, not even once.

I've had my cellphone just randomly drop calls....a problem I never had with a landline.

It's weird how we accept less quality just to make things more convenient.

[Marcel Birgelen]

I can't wait until I can take a dump on the new, IMAX-enhanced toilet seat, including DTS signature sound effects, never-seen-before, IMAX-enhanced aspect ratios and DMR+ super-flush.

It's weird how we accept less quality just to make things more convenient.

Convenient. Is that really the word you were looking for? Because I consider stuff that just works as anticipated as convenient. Want to turn off the light? Get up, flip that switch on the wall. Inconvenient? Open your smart phone app, hit the "switch off" thingy 10 times with no result, go to the settings menu, restart the app, get more frustrated, reboot the phone, mess around with the settings and eventually get up and flip the switch on the wall...

[Scott Norwood]

This is right up there with THX-certified VHS tapes....

[Bobby Henderson]

Yeah, the "IMAX Enhanced Aspect Ratio" stuff on Disney+ reminded me of the video Joe Redifer made about THX certification jumping the shark as it spread to various kinds of consumer products, including movies on VHS tape.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0wZtH-lm7Fw

[Marcel Birgelen]

Yeah, that was exactly what I was referring to .

They're selling this as if creating content suitable for different aspect ratios is like a new, technical marvel, but Open Matte shooting techniques have been around for decades upon decades... I don't have a problem with movies being shot with multiple aspect ratios in mind, but what I do mind is that scope is seemingly becoming the lesser format in this entire process... Instead of scope being the "wider" format, it's becoming the "cropped down" version of "the original"...

[Bobby Henderson]

I think 'scope has turned into the default cinema format for a couple of reasons. Money-wise, it's the default because there are fewer pixels to render. In d-cinema 'scope is the smaller, cheaper format. What we are watching these days is a digital version of 2-perf 35mm TechniScope. Since it's super wide-screen aspect ratio it's still easy to sell. Yet now we have taller images being sold as being "enhanced." Like, I said earlier, we're drowning in the stupid.

[Mike Blakesley]

Convenient. Is that really the word you were looking for? Because I consider stuff that just works as anticipated as convenient.

Good point.... convenience is the perception and the selling point, but execution is not always that convenient. So what they're really selling is the perception.

I like when they say you can do something "with just a click." "Just a click" is probably closer to 10 or 12 clicks, and "A few clicks" probably means at least 15 clicks, plus some typing and scrolling.