Megaplex Theatres adds more Atmos theaters

By Devin Brown

Utah’s largest theater company, Megaplex Theatres, is building two Dolby Atmos theaters at the new @geneva project in Vineyard, Utah. They hope to finish the entire project by February.

In this image released by Dolby, it shows

a typical Atmos setup. (Dolby Laboratories)

The first theater will be comparable in size to Megaplex’s Valley Fair Atmos theater, with about 550 seats. The second theater will be smaller with about 350 seats.

Jeff Whipple, the vice president of marketing and advertising for Megaplex Theaters, is excited about the new addition for the company. He said the Miller family — Megaplex Theatres is owned by the Larry H. Miller Group — has always wanted the “latest and greatest” technologies in its theaters.

In this photo released by Claco,

it shows the Christie Vive speakers

and sub-woofers, 45' in the air.

(Claco Equipment)

Whipple believes most movie producers and recording studios want to work with Megaplex to bring the most advanced technologies to its theaters. Megaplex was selected by Dolby to be one of the first theaters in the country to offer the Atmos format. According to Dolby’s website, there are over 100 Atmos Theaters in the U.S.

“Megaplex has a good reputation in the film industry,” Whipple said. “We get a lot of chances to beta test a lot of new technologies in the industry.”

Not every Utahn knows about Atmos, according to Whipple, but he thinks with the new release of Atmos on the consumer market many customers will come to hear Atmos in theaters.

Adam Tillman, the projection manager for Megaplex’s 178 screens, said Megaplex is building more Atmos theaters to make it easier on their customers. Many times at the Valley Fair Atmos theater, according to Tillman, customers had to wait to see a specific movie in Atmos. He said customers would now be able to pick from two theaters at the same location.

“A lot more movies are available in Atmos,” Tillman said. “With so many movies in Atmos it’s hard to show everything on just one screen.”

Whipple said he has heard of audiophiles taking a “pilgrimage” to the Valley Fair Atmos theater just to hear the sound difference.

Tillman said the Geneva Atmos theaters are being built specifically for Atmos. When Megaplex built the Valley Fair theaters it didn’t add Atmos until after the design process. Megaplex then had to retrofit its designs to accommodate Dolby’s specifications.

The Geneva Atmos theaters will have, according to Tillman, Christie Vive Audio speakers. Tillman said Christie Vive speakers are different from Valley Fair’s QSC and JBL speakers because it uses a ribbon tweeter design. Christie Vive’s ribbon tweeters, according to its website, are four times the efficiency as a compression speaker.

Eric Butterworth, a salesman at Claco Equipment, the company who helped designed the Geneva theaters, said the Geneva Atmos theaters will also have D-Box —  full-motion seats that move with a movie, a first for an Atmos theater in the western U.S. — and 3D, these formats are currently not offered at the Valley Fair Atmos theater.  

According to Whipple, ticket pricing at Megaplex’s Atmos theaters will stay at the normal $9.25 rate. This is the same price for Megaplex’s standard movies.

“We try to keep the ticket prices low,” Whipple said. “It has a lot to do with the agreements that we make with Dolby and other companies.”

New Atmos movies to be released are: “The Hunger Games:  Mockingjay - Part 1” and “The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies.”