The largest movie theater screen ever in Illinois is nearing its long-awaited debut as officials from Emagine Entertainment have announced the opening of the Emagine Batavia Super EMX auditorium on July 11.
The Emagine Batavia facility at 550 N. Randall Road, featuring a number of auditoriums, opened back on May 31. However, the Super EMX auditorium was still being worked on at that time.
The venue, formally the Randall 15 IMAX, was purchased by Emagine Entertainment in spring 2020. It has underwent a renovation including construction of the new Super EMX room.
The auditorium will feature a 94-foot-wide and 40-foot-tall screen along with several rows of heated recliner seats as well as a front row of what are described as couch-like seats. The company noted that four outdated auditoriums at the site had to be torn down to make room for the new EMX room.
Paul Glantz, co-founder and chairman for the Troy, Michigan-based Emagine Entertainment, stated that in his world “everything I think is good always winds up taking more time and costing more than it should” but promised the wait for the new EMX auditorium will be worth it.
“There certainly is a sense of ‘wow’ when people see this and our original hope was for June 1, but everything in good time,” Glantz said Wednesday before Tuesday’s opening. “We started working on this late last fall since at least October, and it’s been a lot of work, no question about it. We’re delighted that we’re at the point where we’re going to open that big screen.”
The film to be shown on opening day of the EMX facility will be “Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One.”
Glantz said the movie choice is wonderful “given the iconic nature of the series. We couldn’t have asked for a better opener” and that he and other company officials are pleased with the first month’s response to the Emagine Batavia theater.
“We’re very pleased with the receptivity of the community to our venue and we’ve seen strong attendance. We think opening this giant screen will bring more people in to check it out and we’re very optimistic about the business,” he said.
The Emagine group now has three Super EMX screens it has constructed in its theaters in the United States.
Glantz said the soon-to-open big screen auditorium “really is the ideal place to watch one of these big action-packed films.”
“The lighting and sound is incredible and if you’re going to go out and watch a big action movie I don’t think there is a better place than this,” he said.
David Sharos is a freelance reporter for The Beacon-News.
