City's IMAX theater snags second-run of Dark Knight Rises | Arts & Culture

There was no sign of a bat signal in the partly cloudy skies of Spokane this morning, but the vigilante crime-fighter of the night was spotted promoting the opening of the Dark Knight at the city’s IMAX theater.

The second-run release opened Friday afternoon thanks to the 35mm advocate and director, Christopher Nolan, who requires his movies be shown on film projectors. That’s a good thing for the city because - that’s all they have.

“They’re not making them available to IMAX theaters all in film, some of them are digital only, “ Craig Butz, entertainment manager for the city’s parks department, said.

It used to be the city facility was the place to be for blockbuster grand openings, but Butz explained The Dark Knight showing is a delayed release which is all they can get for big movies nowadays.

When the IMAX theater opened in the AMC multiplex at Riverpark Square, that also limited what films they could have access to because of a licensed agreement between the two companies.

“Long story short, we now are able to get those films on encore, delayed release, once they show it at the AMC IMAX for a period of time,” Butz added.

More movies are being made and shown on digital, so Butz recognizes that it’s a dilemma for the city facility. They’ll soon run out of opportunities to show second run movies unless they convert to digital.

“There’s not enough capital funds to do it right off the bat,” Butz said. “We have explored leasing opportunities for equipment, but we need to start a game plan to convert the theater to digital or re-purpose it into something else.”

Converting the theater for another use is not as easy as it sounds. A live theatrical theater is a far-fetched plan because there’s no back stage. Butz says the theater would need major renovation to do that.

The Dark Knight Rises is being shown this weekend at 2:40 and 7 p.m. at the Riverfront Park theater. Tickets for IMAX showings range from $5.75 to $10.75. For future dates, visit the city’s website at www.spokaneriverfrontpark.com.