ODEON Cardiff IMAX

Cardiff · United KingdomPublished figures

PremiumCinemaIQ rates this IMAX room C, 46/100 — a modest premium screen, 113 m² of lit picture, with 13% of the screen never lit. The projector rests on a dated source, so the score is indicative. Data read 5 November 2026.

South Wales' largest IMAX, at the Red Dragon Centre in Cardiff Bay since December 2009, relaunched June 2025 with IMAX with Laser and a new multi-channel sound system.

Book at this cinema ↗IMAX's page for this venue ↗

Hemingway Road, Atlantic Wharf Leisure Village, Cardiff, CF10 4JY · Open in maps ↗

~IQ 46provisional

Respectable, but not the full IMAX proposition.

Spec sheet

Projection: IMAX Commercial Laser(as of 2021)
Screen: 16.8 m × 7.7 m (129 m²)
Picture area: 113 m² — 13% of the screen is never lit
Screen shape: 2.18:1 — the fabric itself
Picture shown: 1.90:1
15/70mm film: No
Sound: IMAX 12-channel
Seats: 286
Screen type: Not a dome — curvature not recorded
Opened: 2009
Operator: Odeon

The projector here comes from a 2021 industry listing that we haven't been able to re-confirm. IMAX has converted a lot of screens to laser since, so a 2021 label is a 2021 state rather than a current one. Treat the score as indicative.

Why IQ 46

Screen size6/38

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

Projection24/36

IMAX Commercial Laser · recorded 2021 · no source on file

Full 1.43 frame8/18

1.90:1 · the widest frame this room can show

Sound8/8

IMAX 12-channel · as published

⌷ Size is scored on the picture, not the fabric. This screen is wider than the frame projected onto it, so bands at the sides are never lit and don'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
3ODEON Cardiff IMAX · 16.8×7.7 m · picture 113 m², 13% never lit
4Typical multiplex screen · 12 m wide, height not published

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 · 129 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: 129 m²
Picture: 113 m²
Screen used: 87%

2.2 m of this screen's width — 13% of it — stays dark for an IMAX 1.90 showing, in bands at the sides.

Worth travelling for?

Your nearest premium screen isn't always the best one in reach

Nothing materially better within 75 mi — this is your best option locally.

•Where to next

Every premium screen in Cardiff · All of United Kingdom

Also in Cardiff

Elsewhere in United Kingdom

Other Odeon screens

ODEON Blanchardstown IMAX142 m²

Where this comes from

Published figures

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

Screen dimensions: single source
Projector: not established
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.

No source on file names the projector in this room. It is the weakest field we hold across the network.

Showtimes

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