Fort Worth Omni Theater is ready to open. Here’s a sneak-peak of all the changes
After 18 months of renovations, the Fort Worth Museum of Science and History’s newly renovated Omni Theater is ready to open.
For nearly 40 years, the museum’s Omni IMAX Theater dazzled moviegoers by projecting images on its 180-degree ceiling. Built in 1983 as Fort Worth’s only IMAX, it shut down in March 2020 when the COVID-19 pandemic began.
On Wednesday, Nov. 5, the museum held a press preview for the Jane & John Justin Foundation Omni Theater, which will open to the public on Dec. 14.
“We still have some tweaking to do on the dome, but we got a little bit of time to finish calibrating everything,” said Tammy McKinney, museum vice president of development and marketing
How the renovated Omni theater looks now
Before guests walk into the remodeled theater, they will be treated to a newly renovated lobby that can fit up to 300 people.
Previously, there were no restrooms on the theater level, meaning that guests had to go back into the museum, McKinney said. Now the level has its own set of restrooms in the corner of the lobby, where offices used to be.
The columns and some of the walls in the lobby used to be a mix of orange, white, and purple. Crews toned back the purple, added blue, and then matched the goldenrod yellow already found throughout the museum.
The hallway leading to the theater has been renovated into its own exhibit on how the Omni Theater originally started.
McKinney said guests will still be able to look down upon the old IMAX projector, which isn’t going anywhere. On the other side of the hall, guests will find signage about the theater’s history, including its journey from construction in 1983 to the present day.
Inside the theater, guests will find all-new seating, including 278 larger, more comfortable seats with cup holders.
During the preview, press members were shown a sizzle reel of coming attractions to the dome theater.
Trailers were shown for “Jane Goodall: Reasons for Hope” and “Great Bear Rainforest.” A first glimpse at the new Fort Worth flyover video was also shown.
The original flyover video debuted in 1983 as part of the “The Legend of the Sleeping Panther” multimedia presentation on the history of Fort Worth. Since then, the flyover of 1980s downtown Fort Worth has been played on every feature at the theater.
While still being tinkered on, the new flyover video will be ready to go for the theater’s opening, McKinney said. Fort Worth company Red Productions is working on the new video.
The first dome of its type and size in the world
The museum partnered with Cosm, a Los Angeles-based technology company, on the dome theater.
No projector is needed in the 78-foot diameter dome. Instead, the LED panels are controlled by computers in a nearby server room. Audio-wise, speakers are attached to and placed all over the backside of the dome to help beam sound waves onto guests through perforated panels.
When the theater opens, it will be historic among those in museums.
“This is the first and largest LED dome in a science museum in the entire world,” Cosm COO Kirk Johnson said. “And it’s right here in Fort Worth.”
Nearly 12,000 individual LED panels make up the new Omni Theater.
As far as the brightness of the 8K display, Johnson said it’s 150 times brighter than a typical planetarium and 10 times brighter than the digital projection at any local movie theater. The new display is also about 40 times brighter than the old IMAX projector.
Combining the display with Cosm’s “experience engine” software, Johnson said the dome theater will create a transformative experience for viewers.
“It brings that magic and that wow experience back to the Omni that we’ve heard about from the team over the past 40 years,” Johnson said.
Fort Worth Omni museum expects big opening weekend crowd
Tickets have been on sale for about a week now and McKinney said the museum expects a “big crowd” on opening weekend.
The first screening of the day on Dec. 14 will be “Animal Kingdom,” and the museum is partnering with the Fort Worth Zoo to bring a few animals for guests to meet in the lobby. Other screenings throughout the day include “Sea Lions: Life by a Whisker,” “Cities of the Future,” “Jane Goodall: Reasons for Hope” and “Great Bear Rainforest.”
A pajama party screening of “The Polar Express” will end the theater’s opening night. Tickets have sold out for this event.
After a long road of renovations on the $22 million project, the Jane & John Justin Foundation Omni Theater will finally open on Dec. 14.
“We are set and excited,” McKinney said.
This story was originally published December 5, 2024 at 1:25 PM.
