SunRay Cinema eyeing IMAX theater at World Golf Hall of Fame ahead of closing

ST. JONES, Florida — SunRay Cinema is asking its customers to contact St. John’s County Commissioners to help save North Florida’s biggest IMAX screen before it closes for good in September.

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As the deadline for the World Golf Hall of Fame to leave World Golf Village in September approaches, the call has come in.

The St. Johns County Commissioners do not currently have a plan for the facility, which includes a unique 80-foot-wide, 50-foot-tall IMAX theater that has been open since 1998.

The IMAX in the World Golf Hall of Fame is the only legal IMAX screen built in northeast Florida before the settings changed in 2008 to allow digital projectors in conventional multiplexes. It is also the second largest screen in the entire state, with the first being IMAX at the Candy Space Center.

The IMAX Worldwide Golf Hall of Fame has posted on its website that it will be open as usual until September 1 and close to the public on September 2, with its future hanging in the air.

There is hope for the future of IMAX cinema.

SunRay Cinema, a historic two-screen cinema located in Five Points, recently posted a message on social media expressing great interest in keeping IMAX alive, asking its subscribers to send emails to the commissioners.

“They (the St. Johns County Commissioners) are looking for public feedback, so if any of you would like Sun-Ray to take over operations at the former World Golf Village IMAX, perhaps you could send them a note expressing that. ? – the message says. “By the way, if it ever worked out, we would definitely reinstall 70mm projectors.”

70mm film projection is a high definition wide format film that is nearly 350% higher resolution than traditional film formats, equivalent to about 18k compared to 4k in digital cinemas.

The Facebook post also contained emails from several St. Johns County Commissioners.

SunRay Cinema has created a website where people can send a direct message to the St. John’s County Commissioners expressing their desire to keep IMAX. Click HERE visit their website and save the cinema.

The cinema equipment inside IMAX is still in place and showing films before the deadline, but it will be left by the theater company when the World Golf Hall of Fame leaves this year.

It is likely that the theater’s equipment will need to be upgraded within the next five to eight years if another company takes over its operations.

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