If you’re the type of person who can only watch new movies at an IMAX cinema, grab the popcorn and get ready to be blown away.
Trailblazing filmmaker Darren Aronofsky has offered a first glimpse of the gargantuan screen inside The Sphere in Las Vegas.
The strip’s latest tourist attraction is the world’s biggest spherical structure, which stands at 336 feet high and 556 feet wide. Inside, it houses the world’s largest LED screen that wraps up and around the audience.
Measuring 160,000 square feet — and with resolution 100 times better than the typical television — it sounds like a movie lover’s dream. Billed as an “LED media plane”, the screen is the size of four football fields.
To give you an idea of just how massive that is, the largest cinema screen in the UK at the BFI IMAX in London has a total size of 5,520 square feet. While the biggest cinema screen in the world, the Traumplast Leonberg IMAX in Germany, measures 8,770 square feet.
Aronofsky revealed the first look inside The Sphere in an Instagram post, with a caption detailing its cutting-edge specs. The screen will offer a crystal-clear 18K resolution at a smooth 60 frames per second.
Aronofsky — whose movies veer between daring psychological dramas and empathetic, character-driven narratives like Black Swan and The Wrestler — will debut a purpose-made film at the venue on October 6, called Postcard from Earth.
The upcoming release is described as “part sci-fi story, part nature documentary” that takes viewers “on a journey from the Antarctic, deep into the ocean, across… global locations and deep into space.”
Postcard from Earth is the first cinematic project specially commissioned for The Sphere. Based on the synopsis, the film sounds similar to the nature and space documentaries that IMAX specialised in during its early years, before it became a Hollywood staple.
To further immerse spectators, The Sphere packs a total of 1,600 speakers with the latest 3D audio technology. The system uses software algorithms to steer soundwaves in different directions to deliver a concert-grade experience.
Speaking of live gigs, U2 will be the first band to perform at The Sphere as part of a residency that will take place from September 29 to November 4.
