After a highly successful China opening, Disney’s Lion King remake will hit screens across the globe this week. The film has officially been confirmed to fill up 40 Laser giant screens for five “key sequences”.

For those five sequences, the movie will expand to an aspect ratio of 1.43:1, thus presenting 40% more image compared than its standard aspect ratio of 1.85:1. That way custom-built IMAX giant screens will be filled from top to bottom.

Only 12 venues will screen the film that way in the United States, as well as another 28 abroad. The complete list of participating theaters, per the IMAX website, is below.

UNITED STATES

California

AMC Metreon 16 & IMAX — San Francisco

AMC Universal Citywalk Stadium 19 & IMAX — Los Angeles

IMAX Dome Theater, The Tech Museum — San Jose

Florida

Autonation IMAX, Museum of Discovery & Science — Fort Lauderdale

Illinois

Navy Pier IMAX at AMC — Chicago

Massachusetts

Sunbrella IMAX 3D Theater Reading — Reading

Missouri

Branson’s IMAX – Entertainment Complex — Branson

New York

AMC Lincoln Square 13 & IMAX — New York

Texas

IMAX, The Bullock Texas State History Museum — Austin

Virginia

Airbus IMAX, Stephen F. Udvar-Hazy Center — Chantilly

Washington

Boeing IMAX, Pacific Science Center — Seattle

Washington, D.C.

Lockheed Martin IMAX, National Air & Space Museum — Washington

OTHER COUNTRIES

Canada

Scotiabank Toronto & IMAX — Toronto

Australia

IMAX, Melbourne Museum — Carlton

Bahamas

Fusion Superflex & IMAX — Nassau

China

Dongguan South China Wanda IMAX Theatre — Dongguan

Harbin Entime Tailai Era IMAX Theatre — Harbin

Kunming Panxing Dadu LCC & IMAX — Kunming

Japan

109 Cinemas Osaka Expocity & IMAX — Osaka

IMAX, Melbourne Museum — Carlton

Korea

CGV Yongsan I-Park Mall & IMAX — Hangang-ro-3ga, Yongsan-gu

New Zealand

Event Cinemas Queen Street & IMAX — Auckland

Taiwan

Miramar IMAX — Taipei City

“Select musical sequences of The Lion King have been specially formatted exclusively for IMAX theatres – which means that during these scenes, the picture will expand vertically to fill the entire IMAX screen,” writes IMAX on its website.

Before IMAX introduced their Laser technology in 2015, giant screens such as the ones listed above were not able to fill up their entire screens for digital films due to standard Xenon projectors not allowing that. With Laser, digital films can now completely fill up those original, custom built 1.43:1 IMAX giant screens.

IMAX chief executive Rich Gelfond mentioned Favreau using IMAX cameras and extended aspect ratio for the film on an earnings call this April, which was noticed by TrailerTrack’s Anton Volkov.

“Jon Favreau specifically optimized five key sequences of the highly anticipated Lion King in our proprietary aspect ratio to maximize the IMAX consumer experience. Next year, we already have three films confirmed to be using our film cameras. Patty Jenkins is currently using these cameras on Wonder Woman 1984, creating an immersive story for moviegoers that no other format can match,” said Gelfond on the call.

Other films in the past few years which have taken advantage of 1.43:1 IMAX screens include First Man and Dunkirk, as well as a rerelease of Michael Jackson’s Thriller which was shown before IMAX presentations of The House with a Clock in Its Walls.

The Lion King is also set to fill 1.90:1 IMAX screens, as that is its aspect ratio for other scenes. The film opens nationwide this weekend.

Image: Walt Disney Pictures