This Is Truly An “Ultimate” Home Theater – IMAX Movies At Home

How much did you pay for the latest IMAX movie ticket you bought? $15? $20? $25?

It costs more to produce and show IMAX films, and those extra costs are often passed along in ticket prices. If you love the added realism and superior movie-going experience you get when watching a film in IMAX, you probably spend a good deal of money each year for the privilege.

Why not save all of those $5 surcharges, by making a one-time investment to put an IMAX theater right into your house?
We’re kidding, of course – you’d have to be in the habit of visiting your local multiplex thousands of times per year just to approach the break-even point on an investment like this. But if you’ve got some extra bucks to spare, you can add the ultimate movie experience to your home theater – with prices start at only $400,000.

What IMAX Home Theaters Provide

Your local home video installation company can’t just come in and build an IMAX theater in a few days; there’s way too much involved for that. These babies come straight from the source: IMAX’s brand-new Private Theater division.

These aren’t “IMAX light” or “simulated IMAX,” either. You get everything you’d find in the IMAX theater at your local upscale movie house, just on a smaller scale. The system starts with plush seating for up to 18 people and a full touchscreen remote, but is based around the same dual 4K projectors (which are 3D capable), proprietary IMAX sound system, and wall-to-wall, floor-to-ceiling screen that’s installed in theaters that show commercial IMAX films. You also get a fully-compatible high-definition A/V system which will allow you to watch TV and Blu-ray discs, listen to music, hook up your video game console or even do karaoke, just as you would in a normal home theater.

One caution: if you’re in the United States, your $400,000 investment doesn’t include IMAX movies. You’ll still need to import the movies to your theater via a system like Prima Cinema, with an annual cost of $35,000 per year for the set-top box and $500 for every movie screening. In China and the Middle East, where this service was first rolled out, IMAX provides a $10,000 set-top box (which still requires screening fees) but that’s not yet available in other regions.

Oh, and you’ll need a dedicated room big enough for home IMAX, since the screen alone is more than ten feet tall.

Who Would Buy Their Own IMAX Home Theater?

There’s a large “wealthy class” in countries like Saudi Arabia, Dubai and China, which has been snapping up these IMAX theaters. And many wealthy American and European celebrities prefer their privacy when they want to watch a movie. In fact, the system we’ve described is the low-end “Palais” IMAX theater; many of the super-rich have gone for the $1 million dollar Platinum version which accommodates as many as 40 moviegoers, and IMAX has built even larger home theaters with price tags as high as $5 million.

Sounds great, but just a little out of your price range? Don’t despair; IMAX is planning a half-size “Prestige” home theater, which will cost a much more reasonable $200,000. Naturally, the movies themselves will still cost extra.