National Museum of the U.S. Air Force IMAX

Dayton · United StatesSingle source

PremiumCinemaIQ rates this IMAX room C, 36/100 — a modest premium screen, 313 m² of lit picture, with 31% of the screen never lit. The projector generation was never established, so the score is indicative. Data read 21 October 2026.

We don't have a link to this cinema's own page yet.

Map position approximate (city centre)

~IQ 36provisional

Respectable, but not the full IMAX proposition.

Spec sheet

Projection: Digital — generation not established
Screen: 24.4 m × 18.6 m (454 m²)
Picture area: 313 m² — 31% of the screen is never lit
Screen shape: 1.31:1 — the fabric itself
Picture shown: 1.90:1
15/70mm film: No
Sound: Not published
Seats: 400
Screen type: Not a dome — curvature not recorded
Opened: 1991
Operator

⚠ Still trading, but no longer an IMAX venue. 'In 2013, the Air Force Museum Theater was upgraded from IMAX to digital 3D'; Foundation ticketing site sells giant-screen films with no IMAX branding.

⚠ The 2021 listing records a xenon projector here, but this screen is 24.4m wide and IMAX specified that system for screens no wider than 21.3 m. Nobody has stated the projector directly, so we don't assert one — the score treats it as unknown rather than assuming the older, dimmer system.

Why IQ 36

Screen size17/38

313 m² of lit picture · full marks at 700 m² · one source

Projection11/36

digital, generation never established · recorded 2021 · one source

Full 1.43 frame8/18

1.90:1 · the widest frame this room can show

Sound0/8

no sound specification published

⌷ 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 · 38.8×21.0 m · picture 792 m², 3% never lit
2BFI IMAX · 26×20.0 m · picture 473 m², 9% never lit
3National Museum of the U.S. Air Force · 24.4×18.6 m · picture 313 m², 31% never lit
4Typical multiplex screen · 12 m wide, height not published

Compare against any screen →

Scale check

Familiar objects, same scale as the screen

8 double-decker buses fit on this screen (2 across × 4 up · 454 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: 454 m²
Picture: 313 m²
Screen used: 69%

5.8 m of this screen's height — 31% of it — stays dark for an 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

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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: single source
Operating status: verified not-imax (2013)

The projector here rests on a single source. It is the weakest field we hold across the network.

Showtimes

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