We've reached a new plateau in the competitive world of filmmaking. "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen" and "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" are arguably the summer's biggest blockbuster releases. Both will release in IMAX theaters and both will feature exclusive content for those screens. Now, like a bully stealing lunch money in the schoolyard, the giant-sized "Transformers" robots have shoved the magic-using schoolchildren of "Harry Potter" into a delayed IMAX release.
"Transformers" arrives in theaters of all sizes on June 24, and is booked for a month-long run on the super-sized IMAX screens. As we learned yesterday from the man himself, Michael Bay's giant robot blockbuster will feature four additional, specially shot fight scenes in its IMAX iteration. For all of the recent hubbub surrounding IMAX screen sizes, few fans will be able to resist the lure of format-exclusive extra footage.
"Fallen"'s month-long IMAX run overlaps with "Potter"'s July 12 release, which was itself pushed back from an originally planned November 2008 opening. "Potter" will receive a limited July 12 IMAX release -- in New York and Los Angeles, 'natch -- but fans outside of those cities will be forced to wait an extra two weeks for the super-sized version, and for the 12 minutes of exclusive 3-D footage that it contains.
Are you disappointed to hear of the "Potter" delay? Are you okay with the idea of paying a premium for your movie tickets when the IMAX presentation -- no matter the screen size -- is sweetened with the promise of additional footage? Where do you fall on the IMAX screen size debate?
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