IMAX (short for Image MAXimum) is a film format created by Canada's IMAX Corporation that has the capacity to display images of far greater size and resolution than conventional film display systems. A standard IMAX screen is 22 metres (72 ft) wide and 16.1 metres (53 ft) high, but can be larger. As of 2008, IMAX is the most widely used system for large-format, special-venue film presentations. As of March 2007, there were 280 IMAX theatres in 38 countries (60% of these are located in Canada and the United States). Half of these are commercial theatres and half are in educational venues. A variation of IMAX, IMAX DOME (originally called OMNIMAX), is designed for projection on tilted dome screens. Films can also be projected in 3D with IMAX 3D. The biggest "IMAX Dome" is in the Liberty Science Center in Jersey City, New Jersey. The world's largest cinema screen is located in Sydney, NSW in Australia at 29.42m high by 35.73m wide.The desire to increase the visual impact of film has a long history. In 1929, Fox introduced Fox Grandeur, the first 70 mm movie format, which quickly fell from use. In the 1950s, CinemaScope and VistaVision widened the projected image from 35 mm film, and there were multi-projector systems such as Cinerama for even wider presentations. While impressive, Cinerama was difficult to set up, and the seams between adjacent projected images were difficult to hide.
