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IMAX in Germany

Germany has 16 IMAX installations. Only two can show the full 1.43:1 IMAX image, two still run the old 2K xenon generation, and no cinema in the country can project IMAX 70 mm film. Here is what runs where.

16
IMAX screens in Germany
2
show the full 1.43:1 frame
2
still run 2K xenon projectors
0
can project IMAX 70 mm film
The five versionsEvery screen, to scaleNo 70 mmBeyond IMAXLEDFrequently asked
film frame
cropped
cropped
The thing to understand

It is picture height, not width

A 1.43:1 screen is nearly as tall as it is wide, so a film shot in that format keeps everything the IMAX camera recorded. On a 1.90:1 screen the same film loses the top and bottom of the frame. The image is not narrower, it is shorter.

Two German halls show the tall version: Karlsruhe and Sinsheim. Everywhere else, you are watching the cropped one.

Ranked

The five IMAX versions, best to weakest

Two cinemas can carry the top of this list. Most of Germany sits at number three.

01

IMAX 70 mm film (1.43:1)

The original: 15/70 mm film running horizontally through the projector, about 7K worth of detail on a screen almost as tall as it is wide. This is what directors like Christopher Nolan shoot for. Only six cinemas in Europe can project it.

Not in Germany
02

IMAX with Laser, GT (1.43:1)

A Grand Theatre hall with dual 4K laser projectors and a screen tall enough for the native 1.43:1 image. Digital rather than film, but you see the complete frame: roughly 40 % more picture height than any other German IMAX offers. 12-channel sound.

Karlsruhe · Sinsheim
03

IMAX with Laser (1.90:1)

The standard modern German installation: dual 4K laser, 12-channel sound, deep blacks, bright whites. The screen is wide but comparatively short, so films shot in 1.43:1 are cropped at the top and bottom. Still a clear step above a normal auditorium.

11 cinemas
04

IMAX Digital, Xenon (1.90:1)

The first digital IMAX generation from the 2010s: two 2K xenon projectors and 5.1 sound. Dimmer, lower in contrast and lower in resolution than the laser halls, on screens that are sometimes smaller than a good normal auditorium. This is the installation enthusiasts complain about.

Bochum · Hamburg
05

IMAX Dome

A hemispherical screen that wraps around your field of vision, tilted seating, and, uniquely in Germany, still genuine analog film. It runs documentaries rather than features, and dome geometry means feature films are not shown here.

Speyer
Every screen in Germany

All 16, drawn to scale

Sorted by screen area. Every rectangle below is the real shape and relative size of that screen. The two gold rows are the only halls in Germany where a film shot in IMAX is shown at its full height.

for comparison: a typical multiplex screen, ≈ 15 × 6 m
The gap

No IMAX 70 mm in Germany

When a film is shot on IMAX cameras, the 15/70 mm print is the version that shows everything the camera captured. Germany has no cinema equipped for it.

Nearest 15/70 mm projectors
PragueBrusselsLondon ×2ManchesterMontpellier
The consolation

But non-IMAX 70 mm exists

Analog 70 mm never went away. Four classic German houses still thread it, and on a big curved screen a 70 mm print remains the closest thing to how a film like this was meant to look here.

Where 70 mm still runs

The Schauburg in Karlsruhe projects onto a curved Cinerama screen, the shape cinemas were built around in the 1950s.

For scale

The biggest German screens that are not IMAX

IMAX is not automatically the largest screen in the room. The Cinemagnum in Nuremberg was built as an IMAX in the 1990s, dropped the licence in 2010, and at 609 m² it is still bigger than every German IMAX except Leonberg and Sinsheim. It sits in a hall anchored 35 metres deep in the local sandstone.

The other premium format

Dolby Cinema in Germany

Four German cinemas run a full Dolby Cinema: Dolby Vision projection with far deeper blacks than a normal hall, plus Dolby Atmos. The screens are smaller than the IMAX giants. This format competes on contrast, not on square metres.

30 × 16 m · 8K+ · LED

Autumn 2026

The world's largest cinema LED wall

The Cinemagnum in Nuremberg is replacing its projection screen with a 30 × 16 metre LED wall at over 8K, the largest cinema LED display in the world, curved and set flush into the walls. An LED wall emits its own light instead of reflecting a projector's, which means real black and no dimming as the lamp ages.

It is smaller in area than the screen it replaces. Whether that trade lands is the question worth watching this autumn.

Frequently asked

Good to know

Which big German cities have no IMAX?

Munich, Stuttgart, Cologne and Bremen. Munich's closed in 2009, and Hamburg lost a second one when UCI Othmarschen shut for good in 2024 after flood damage. The nearest screens are Neu-Ulm for Munich, Leonberg for Stuttgart, Düsseldorf for Cologne and Hamburg for Bremen.

Where can I see real 1.43:1 IMAX in Germany?

In two cinemas: the Filmpalast am ZKM in Karlsruhe and the Technik Museum in Sinsheim. Both are IMAX Grand Theatre halls with dual 4K laser projectors and screens tall enough for the full image. Every other German IMAX shows a 1.90:1 version cropped at the top and bottom.

What is the difference between 1.43:1 and 1.90:1?

It is picture height, not width. A 1.43:1 screen is nearly as tall as it is wide, so a film shot in that format keeps everything the IMAX camera recorded. On a 1.90:1 screen the same film loses the top and bottom of the frame.

Is there IMAX 70 mm film in Germany?

No. No German cinema has a 15/70 mm projector. The nearest cinemas that can show IMAX 70 mm are in Prague, Brussels, London, Manchester and Montpellier. Speyer runs analog IMAX film, but on a dome and only for documentaries.

Which is the biggest IMAX screen in Germany?

The Traumpalast in Leonberg near Stuttgart, at 38.80 × 21.00 metres or 815 m². Guinness World Records confirmed it in December 2022 as the largest permanent cinema screen in the world. It projects in 1.90:1.