AMC DINE-IN Rio Cinemas 18 IMAX

Gaithersburg · United StatesSingle source

PremiumCinemaIQ rates this IMAX room D, 37/100 — a small room carrying a premium badge — it fails the large-format premise on size, whatever the projector, 99 m² of lit picture, with 12% of the screen never lit. Two independent sources agree on the projector. Data read 21 September 2026.

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IQ 37

IMAX in name. Weigh it against the surcharge.

Spec sheet

Projection: IMAX Commercial Laser
Screen: 13.7 m × 8.2 m (112 m²)
Picture area: 99 m² — 12% of the screen is never lit
Screen shape: 1.67:1 — the fabric itself
Picture shown: 1.90:1
15/70mm film: No
Sound: Not published
Seats: 248
Screen type: Not a dome — curvature not recorded
Opened: 2011
Operator

⚠ LIEMAX — at 13.7m wide this is in the smallest tenth of IMAX screens worldwide (the median is 20 m), showing a 1.90 frame. Good projection can't buy back screen size.

Why IQ 37

Screen size5/38

Projection24/36

Full 1.43 frame8/18

Sound0/8

⌷ Size is scored on the picture, not the fabric. This screen is taller than its projector's frame, so a chunk of it is never lit and doesn't count.

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 DINE-IN Rio Cinemas 18 · 13.7×8.2 m · picture 99 m², 12% never lit
4Typical multiplex screen · 12×5 m

Compare against any screen →

Scale check

Familiar objects, same scale as the screen

1 double-decker bus fit on this screen (1 across × 1 up · 112 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

dark

Screen: 112 m²
Picture: 99 m²
Screen used: 88%

1.0 m of this screen — 12% 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

Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center

Chantilly · 19 mi away

You'd get 341% more screen, the full 1.43 frame.

Dolby Cinema at AMC Hoffman Center 22

Alexandria · 23 mi away

Dolby Cinema at AMC Annapolis Mall 11

Annapolis · 39 mi away

Better screens within 75 mi

•Where to next

All of United States

Elsewhere in United States

Where this comes from

Single source

We treat a figure as confirmed only when two independent sources agree.

Screen dimensions: single source
Projector: confirmed by 2 sources
Operating status: verified open

Showtimes

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