I was so excited about the opening of the IMAX theater in the Philippines that I summed up all the courage and patience to watch Everest in IMAX during the grand opening of the Mall of Asia last Sunday. Everest film was breathtaking (I’ll cover Everest in a separate post) and you will truly appreciate the feat accomplished by Leo Oracion, Pastor Emata, and Romi Garduce in climbing the top of the world. The focus of this post is IMAX and I’ll give you a sneak peak on what to expect during your first IMAX experience 🙂
Top 10 IMAX highlights:
— You’ll be awestruck by the sheer size of a 20m x 33m 8 stories high Wide Screen. I tried to capture the screen and give a perspective on how huge it is!
— There are 560 seats in the theater and the show was sold out! Just see how big the theater is.
— The rows are from A to P with A being the first row in front of the screen. Trust me, you don’t want to be in A and we were seated in G but still it feels too close. My advise get seats near P and in the center around seat 20+.
— There are two entrances in the first floor. The right entrance was supposed to be an entrance for seats 1-21 while the left was for seats 22-44. If you are on the wrong entrance, don’t worry just tell the person that you don’t mind entering the wrong entrance and walk all the way to your seat because it ain’t that far to walk.
— The exit was on the second floor at the back of the theater. I can imagine in an emergency you don’t want to be stucked in the middle of the IMAX theater so make sure you position yourself near the exit. So if I were to watch again, I’ll choose row P, single digit seats.
— IMAX is located in the north side of Mall of Asia. So I suggest that you park in the north side open space. I’ll posted a map of the mall of asia below to give you an orientation where IMAX is. You don’t want to be caught parking on the south side, it is too far from IMAX.
— The IMAX shows is only for 45 minutes compared to the regular 1.5-2 hours show.
— There are two shows available that is currently showing the Nascar Racing which is a 3d show for P200 and Everest which is a 2d show for P150. Superman Returns will be showing in late June, so this is the movie to watch out in IMAX!
— The IMAX Theater is sponsored by San Miguel and Coca Cola, so expect this theme throughout the theater. San Miguel Beer anyone during the movie? bad idea…
— Food and drinks are allowed inside the theater. But please as a courtesy to the next people watching the IMAX shows, please clean your trash and put them in the trash can.
Please watch Everest and you’ll admire how our Filipino climbers (Leo Oracion, Pastor Emata, and Romi Garduce) were very successful in climbing Mt. Everest.
You can buy your IMAX ticket in the theater itself but my advise is buy it in the second floor where there is a shorter queue. For perspective the second floor is where the regular cinema is, and they can sell tickets for IMAX also.
Is this the first San Miguel Branded Store in the Philippines? I would think so.
The Coca-Cola lounge. This reminds me so much about the theater lobbies in the US. Well done.
Aidan’s first movie!! Imagine that and it was an IMAX Everest movie 🙂 Fortunately, babies more than 12 months can be admittedly already in the theater. Unfortunately, you have to pay the same amount of P150 since he would occupy one seat, ouch!
Another perspective on how big the screen is and watching Everest here is the next best thing than being in Everest.
Here are shows currently showing in Mall of Asia and I posted it here so that you can plan your trip well.
In Everest, there is a 11am first showing, 2pm show (FEW above, this is the time I watched the show), 5pm, 8pm and 11pm Last full show. It alternates with 3d Nascar showing. I always 3d nascar next time.
Where is IMAX? OK, I’ll orient you with this map. The South Parking (Yellow) faces the Church of the Way, the Truth and the Life. The Main Mall (Blue) is the center where it is directly in front of the Mall of Asia Globe. The Entertainment Mall (Green) faces Manila Bay. The IMAX Theater is located in the corner intersecting the North Parking (where the DELL call center is located) and the Entertainment Mall. There are open air parking spaces outside IMAX so find some parking slots there. I don’t advise the 5 story parking towers… believe me this is the last place you want to park.
Related Posts:
Ok, this makes me easier to plan and watch a movie there. Good stuff!
Can you choose your IMAX seats when you’re buying your tickets? Or do you choose your seats only when you enter the cinema?
WOW! this is amazing, if you are inside the mall you will feel like you are outside the country or an alien place, i really love the theater,colorful, very nice place to hung out with friends and families.
anyway I’d like to thanks Mr. Anton for the pics he posted. I have now an idea how beautiful the mall is.
Naku Anton, I should have dropped by on your site before hubby and I went to MOA. We parked at the 5th floor and had to endure the traffic from the elevator, sigh. IMAX rocks!
Ang galing, may IMAX na sa pinas! And yeah, IMAX surely rocks! There’s never a better way to watch Harry Potter than in IMAX 😉
“but my advise is buy it in the second floor where there is a shorter queue”
We used the same trick when we’re still living in Mandaluyong, and a regular at Megamall cinemas. We would buy tix on one of the southern box offices (where tagalag movies are usually shown) and then proceed to watch the movie we want on the northern side =)
thanks for your very useful tips. here’s another one: never visit the mall on weekends!!! we went on a tuesday, and already the queues for the lifts back to the parking were hell! we chose to walk up five flights. exercise…
how much does an IMAX ticket cost??
anu next papalabas sa imax? when?
hehhe thnx!
imax tickets cost depends on the movie.
ung nascar 200/head
ung everest 150/head pero kasi 2d lng sya..no need to wear those polarized shades..tama ba?hehhe
pero pwede combo..2..tpos 300 lang..less 50!ok na un..hehe pero i recommend na mas panoorin nio nlng kung cartoons or ung underwater na next atang papalabas..medyo boring at korny ung real life..bwahehe..
share lng!:D
Hey, Anton, great blog dude! I’ll sure be checking this out frequently. Can put a link from my blog to this blog?
And… how long does the Everest or Nascar movie last?
Can I make a reservation through the internet for an Imax movie?
this is the best birhtday treat i ever recieved, watching superman returns at imax. it’s my 11th b-day!
hello,
sana magkaroon ng site sa internet na pede magpareserve ng ticket sa IMAX kasi pagkakaalam ko paunahan sa ticket eh. kaya parang ayaw pumayag ng parents ko manood ng movie sa IMAX. and the price is that slightly high daw, but I told them that it sulit nmn yun, pero still mahirap parin daw makabili ng ticket… kung magkakaroon man po, or siguro meron na po pa send po sa e-mail ko pls… =P
when can i reserve a ticket for harry potter and the order of phoenix movie?please let me know..
what is the telephone number of the imax theater in mall of asia?
hi anton,
i was searching for an imax seating chart and found this site….looks like a carbon copy of your blog?
http://journals.aol.ca/mabait42/ASINGANIAN/entries/2006/07/13/the-first-imax-theatre-in-the-philippines/1004
It was my family’s first time to watch a movie at IMAX. We had a great time watching Dinosaurs 3D, Giants of Patagonia.
I know this is a bit late but GOOD BLOG!
I have a question: Is the IMAX theatre in MOA still exists today like that huge screen which offers 15 perforations and 70 mm screen size?
Some say that IMAX doesn’t exist anymore and it has gone digital, which bring small screen to 1.78:1 aspect ratio and a bit low resolution to 8k but this screen size is an actual IMAX Film in 1.43:1 aspect ratio projected in Xenon lamps about an 18k resolution.
Would love to hear your update, thanks!