Disney Plus to release some Marvel movies in IMAX's aspect ratio, in case you've got an IMAX theater
Good news for people with enormous TVs or who just like to see slightly more of the Avengers
This Friday is Disney+ Day, the one day of the year when the world must stop to celebrate all of the great Disney content that has improved our lives (it’s just strongly encouraged that you stop to celebrate Disney content on every other day), and while a lot of the festivities have already been teased, we now know about a new one: A handful of Marvel movies are going to be available to stream in IMAX’s big 1.90:1 aspect ratio.
Disney is billing this as a “just as the filmmakers intended” thing, which… sure, but the bottom line for regular people who don’t own an IMAX-sized screen to stream Disney+ stuff on is that the black bars at the top and bottom of the screen on these movies will be smaller. That means you’ll be able to see more of the stuff happening onscreen, specifically at the very top and very bottom. If you do have an IMAX-sized television, you’ll finally be able to take advantage of your screen’s enormity (and congratulations on being the subject of a Weird Al song).
The movies getting the upgraded ratio on November 12 are Iron Man, Guardians of The Galaxy, Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 2, Captain America: Civil War, Doctor Strange, Thor: Ragnarok, Black Panther, Avengers: Infinity War, Ant-Man And The Wasp, Captain Marvel, Avengers: Endgame, Black Widow, and Shang-Chi And The Legend Of The Ten Rings—which is also making its Disney+ debut that day.
Marvel Studios has had a longstanding relationship with IMAX, right down to the terrible Inhumans show being filmed with IMAX cameras and getting a brief theatrical release ahead of its premiere a few years ago. Also, earlier this year, the head of IMAX complained about how Disney’s day-and-date Disney+ release strategy for Black Widow (along with rampant piracy) led to the “cannibalization” of the film’s box office.
Variety has a quote from the aforementioned IMAX boss, Rich Gelfond, who now says that this will allow IMAX to join Marvel fans on an “epic journey” to “a new world” (your house!), so he’s clearly not too broken up about the fact that you can (sort of) literally now watch IMAX movies on a streaming platform. That probably means he’s getting money out of this, so good for him.