Space Center Houston IMAX

Houston · United StatesPublished figures

PremiumCinemaIQ rates this IMAX room C, 23/100 — a modest premium screen, with no published dimensions, so the size score rests on an estimate. The projector generation was never established, so the score is indicative. Data read 5 November 2026.

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~IQ 23*provisional

Respectable, but not the full IMAX proposition.

Spec sheet

Projection: Digital — generation not established
Screen: 26.8 m × 20.1 m (539 m²)
Screen shape: 1.33:1 — the fabric itself
15/70mm film: No
Sound: Not published
Seats: 420
Screen type: Not a dome — curvature not recorded
Opened: 1992
Operator

⚠ Still trading, but no longer an IMAX venue. Replaced by the non-IMAX 4K Space Center Theater; spacecenter.org no longer mentions IMAX. The date the IMAX closed is not established.

We went looking for this one. ⚠ The 2021 listing records a xenon projector here, but this screen is 26.8m 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. This isn't pending — the operator doesn't publish a lamp type and neither does IMAX, so unless the venue says otherwise, nobody publishes it.

Why IQ 23

Screen size *8/38

dimensions never published, scored on a conservative estimate · full marks at 700 m² · one source

Projection11/36

digital, generation never established · no source on file

Full 1.43 frame4/18

no frame shape on file — the projector it was derived from was withdrawn

Sound0/8

no sound specification published

* This venue has never published its screen dimensions. Size is scored on a deliberately conservative estimate, so an unmeasured screen can't out-rank a measured one on guesswork.

How big, really?

Drawn to scale · figure = 1.7 m

1Traumpalast Leonberg IMAX · 38.8×21.0 m · picture 792 m², 3% never lit
2Space Center Houston · 26.8×20.1 m
3BFI IMAX · 26×20.0 m · picture 473 m², 9% 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 · 539 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: 539 m²
Picture: 378 m²
Screen used: 70%

6.0 m of this screen's height — 30% 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.

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•Where to next

Every premium screen in Houston · All of United States

Also in Houston

Elsewhere in United States

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 not-imax

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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