South Barrington AMC 30 to open IMAX screen Friday

The IMAX experience is heading to South Barrington.

The AMC 30 movie theater in town has renovated one of its screens to begin showing IMAX films this Friday, March 27.

The first film to receive the IMAX treatment will be "Monsters vs. Aliens."

Showing films in the IMAX format required alterations to the screening room's seating arrangement, screen, projection and sound system, said Sarah Gormley, vice president of communications for IMAX Corp.

For the full effect, the film itself must be digitally remastered into the format, something that doesn't happen for every movie, she added.

Upcoming films that will be released in IMAX in the coming months include "Star Trek" on May 8, "Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian" on May 22, "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen" on June 26 and "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" later this summer.

While movies specially shot for IMAX have historically been projected onto especially large screens or domes, theaters wishing to make an IMAX conversion don't necessarily require any external reconstruction, Gormley said.

But most multiplexes making a conversion do so in their largest screening rooms, she added.