Virginia Aquarium and Marine Science Center IMAX

Virginia Beach · United StatesSingle source

PremiumCinemaIQ rates this IMAX room C, 37/100 — a modest premium screen, 329 m² of lit picture, with 27% 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 37provisional

Respectable, but not the full IMAX proposition.

Spec sheet

Projection: Digital — generation not established
Screen: 25 m × 18 m (450 m²)
Picture area: 329 m² — 27% of the screen is never lit
Screen shape: 1.39:1 — the fabric itself
Picture shown: 1.90:1
15/70mm film: No
Sound: Not published
Seats: 267
Screen type: Not a dome — curvature not recorded
Opened: 1996
Operator

⚠ This venue has closed (2020). Cinema Treasures lists the Virginia Aquarium IMAX Theatre as closed March 2020; the aquarium's own site no longer lists any theatre and VR pods replaced it as the paid add-on.

⚠ The 2021 listing records a xenon projector here, but this screen is 25m 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 37

Screen size18/38

329 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
3Virginia Aquarium and Marine Science Center · 25×18.0 m · picture 329 m², 27% 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 · 450 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: 450 m²
Picture: 329 m²
Screen used: 73%

4.8 m of this screen's height — 27% 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

Dolby Cinema at AMC Hampton Towne Centre 24

Hampton · about 30 mi away

Dolby Cinema at AMC Lynnhaven 18

Virginia Beach

Better screens within 75 mi

•Where to next

All of United States

Also in Virginia Beach

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 closed (2020)

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

Showtimes

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