AMC Desert Ridge 18 & IMAX
Phoenix · United StatesSingle source
PremiumCinemaIQ rates this IMAX room C, 39/100 — a modest premium screen, 138 m² of lit picture. That rests on a single source. Data read 21 September 2026.
Respectable, but not the full IMAX proposition.
Spec sheet
- Projection
- IMAX Commercial Laser
- Screen
- 16.2 m × 8.9 m (144 m²)
- Screen shape
- 1.82:1 — the fabric itself
- Picture shown
- 1.90:1
- 15/70mm film
- No
- Sound
- Not published
- Seats
- 283
- Screen type
- Not a dome — curvature not recorded
- Opened
- 2009
- Operator
Why IQ 39
How big, really?
Drawn to scale · figure = 1.7 m
- 1Traumpalast Leonberg IMAX · 38.8×21 m · picture 792 m², 3% never lit
- 2BFI IMAX · 26×20 m · picture 473 m², 9% never lit
- 3AMC Desert Ridge 18 & IMAX · 16.2×8.9 m · picture 138 m², 4% never lit
- 4Typical multiplex screen · 12×5 m
Scale check
Familiar objects, same scale as the screen
2 double-decker buss fit on this screen (1 across × 2 up · 144 m² total)
What you actually see
Switch format — watch what lights up on this screen · why this matters
IMAX digital — what most “IMAX” showings actually are
- Screen
- 144 m²
- Picture
- 138 m²
- Screen used
- 96%
0.4 m of this screen — 4% of it — stays dark for a IMAX 1.90 showing. The projector here can't produce the full 1.43 frame, so the top and bottom of the screen are never used at all.
Worth travelling for?
Your nearest premium screen isn't always the best one in reach
Harkins Arizona Mills 25 IMAX
Tempe · 20 mi away
You'd get 210% more screen, real 15/70mm film.
Dolby Cinema at AMC Arrowhead 14
Glendale · 15 mi away
Dolby Cinema at AMC Westgate 20
Glendale · 19 mi away
Better screens within 75 mi
•Where to next
Every premium screen in Phoenix · All of United States
Also in Phoenix
Where this comes from
Single sourceWe treat a figure as confirmed only when two independent sources agree.
- Screen dimensions
- single source
- · LF Examiner industry listing (2021)
- Projector
- single source
- Operating status
- verified open
Sources disagree
The 2021 industry listing records this venue as xenon; we publish laseron the strength of a more recent source. IMAX has converted a great many screens to laser since that listing closed, so the newer record usually wins — but you should know the two don't match.
The projector here rests on a single source. It is the weakest field we hold across the network.
Showtimes
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