San Diego Natural History Museum IMAX

San Diego · United StatesSingle source

PremiumCinemaIQ rates this IMAX room D, 24/100 — a small room carrying a premium badge — it fails the large-format premise on size, whatever the projector, 99 m² of lit picture. The projector rests on a dated source, 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 24provisional

Premium in name. Weigh it against the surcharge.

Spec sheet

Projection: IMAX Digital Xenon(as of 2021)
Screen: 13.7 m × 7.6 m (104 m²)
Screen shape: 1.80:1 — the fabric itself
Picture shown: 1.90:1
15/70mm film: No
Sound: Not published
Seats: 300
Screen type: Not a dome — curvature not recorded
Opened: 2001
Operator

⚠ Still trading, but no longer an IMAX venue. Museum's own site brands the venue the 'Giant Screen Theater'; no IMAX reference.

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.

⚠ 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 24

Screen size5/38

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

Projection11/36

IMAX Digital Xenon · 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

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
3San Diego Natural History Museum · 13.7×7.6 m · picture 99 m², 5% 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 · 104 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: 104 m²
Picture: 99 m²
Screen used: 95%

0.4 m of this screen's height — 5% 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

Regal Irvine Spectrum IMAX

Irvine · about 75 mi away

You'd get 430% more screen, real 15/70mm film.

Dolby Cinema at AMC Otay Ranch 12

Chula Vista

Dolby Cinema at AMC Plaza Bonita 14

National City

Better screens within 75 mi

•Where to next

Every premium screen in San Diego · All of United States

Also in San Diego

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

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

Showtimes

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