Bullock Museum IMAX® Theatre

Home to the biggest screen in Texas and Austin's only Giant Screen

The Bullock Texas State History Museum has been proud to provide the largest IMAX® screen experience in Texas since opening in 2001. The Bullock was the first theater in Texas, and one of only a few in the world, to offer movies using the new IMAX® with Laser system. The sharpest, brightest, clearest and most vivid images ever created on screen, combined with a new level of immersive audio, enhance the intensity of the IMAX Experience®. The 329-seat theater is home to the biggest screen in Texas – six stories high and 84 feet wide  – and Austin's only certified Giant Screen.

The IMAX® Experience

The highest-resolution cameras in the world. Projection lights so bright you can see them from the moon. A sound system so precise you can hear a pin drop from across the room and know exactly where it fell. A theatre customized with a patented screen and seating design that ensures every seat is in the center of the action. This is The IMAX Experience®. In the Bullock Museum IMAX Theatre, everything from the movie itself to the technology and theatre design has been developed and customized to make you believe you are part of the action.

See the Difference

The proprietary dual 4K laser projection system features a laser light source that offers significantly more brightness than a xenon bulb, and allows the Bullock Museum IMAX Theatre to fill the biggest screen in Texas with even sharper and more lifelike images. IMAX with Laser reaches a higher-than-ever contrast level — the difference between the whitest white and the blackest black. And, it allows viewers to see colors they've never seen on screen before. More contrast and a wider gamut of colors means more detail in the image and even more intense, lifelike images, creating a heightened level of realism that makes audiences feel like they're not just watching a movie, they're part of one.

A Dimensional Difference

The laser system will also include new 3D glasses and a completely unique 3D technology that utilizes color filtering. Currently the IMAX film and IMAX digital systems create 3D using  polarized images, while the new system utilizes color filtering. Combined with the use of two Laser 4K projectors, the Bullock Museum IMAX Theatre will offer the brightest, clearest 3D (and 2D) experience available.

Earth-Shattering Sound

Creating an immersive experience starts with the design of the theatre. The shape, angles and dimensions are strategic, and the Bullock Museum IMAX Theatre architecture has been customized and enhanced with better soundproofing and the most effective placement of the speakers to create an optimum listening environment for every seat. IMAX’s next-generation sound system delivers even greater power and precision, doubling the sound through an enhanced 12-channel system with boosted sub-bass. Additional speakers above the audience and on both sides of the theater provide an unrivaled, visceral sound experience.

See and Hear Films as the Filmmaker Intended

IMAX is so unique that most ambitious and accomplished filmmakers – like Christopher Nolan, Brad Bird, James Cameron and J.J. Abrams – vie for the chance to make an IMAX picture. In fact, for every IMAX movie that is made, five or six others are turned down. In a film presented in IMAX, the soundtrack itself has been enhanced. The DMR process ensure the sound of the original movie was re-mixed in post-production to recapture its full dynamic range, tweaked to make it brighter, crisper and more exhilarating. This takes full advantage of the unique, responsive sound system in an IMAX theatre.

See What's Playing in IMAX® 

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Press Releases

Enhanced audio installed at the Bullock

IMAX with Laser to launch 10/8 at the Bullock

September 27, 2016 (Austin, Texas) -- The Bullock Museum IMAX® Theatre, located in downtown Austin will reopen to the public next week, featuring a renovated theater and the newest movie projection technology available. The first theater in Texas, and one of only a handful in the world, to offer movies using the new proprietary IMAX® with Laser system, the museum will host a series of special screenings for members before the theater re-opens to the public on Oct. 8, 2016. View Press Release