Not too long ago , IMAX moving-picture show were on the face of it reserved for documentary and nature plastic film at museums and skill nub with jumbo bean movie screens that dwarf anything available in local theaters . But in the last two decades , film maker have gravitate towards using IMAX tv camera for even greater images , while moviegoer have shifted to watching mainstream release in IMAX theaters around the world .

Last month , Dune : Part Twohit theater , andthe critical consensus of the sequelis that it ’s well bask on the biggest filmdom potential . Before you make plans to see the hitsci - fi sequelin IMAX for the second or 5th time , we ’re strike a look back at the 10 best IMAX movies ever .

10: Tron: Legacy (2010)

Unlike many of the films on this list , Tron : Legacywas not filmed with IMAX cameras . But it was commute into an IMAX discharge , and the visuals of the Grid really lend themselves well to the large formatting . Despite the disappointing box office returns ofLegacy , director Joseph Kosinski instal himself as a top film producer . His experience with this movie surely avail guide him on his recent moving-picture show , includingOblivionandTop Gun : Maverick .

Legacyis a continuation to the originalTronfrom 1982 . Garrett Hedlund plays Sam Flynn , the son of Kevin Flynn ( Jeff Bridges ) , who disappeared into the Grid decade to begin with . After unexpectedly follow his father into the living computing machine world that he created , Sam run into Quorra ( Olivia Wilde , theatre director ofDon’t Worry Darling ) , a sentient isomorphic algorithm . Sam also discovers that Clu ( Bridges ) , an evil extra of his father , has take over the Grid and transformed it in his image .

WatchTron : LegacyonDisney+ .

9. Avatar: The Way of Water (2022)

The originalAvatarwas shown in IMAX during its initial 2009 passing , but James Cameron went several stairs further with the continuation . embodiment : The Way of Waterwas filmed completely with IMAX cameras . That made a immense difference when creating a larger canvas for the visuals of Pandora and the expanded scope of the story . One of the reasons whyThe Way of Waterearned $ 2.320 billion worldwide is that interview flocked to see it in both IMAX and 3D.

incarnation : The Way of Waterpicks up a few age after the original , as Jake Sully ( Sam Worthington ) and Neytiri ( Zoe Saldaña ) start a phratry , including their adoptive girl , Kiri ( Sigourney Weaver ) , who is more than an ordinary Na’vi or an avatar . When humans reinvades Pandora , Jake discovers that the armed force are take by an avatar dead ringer of his old nemesis , Miles Quaritch ( Stephen Lang ) . To protect his house , Jake relocates them from the forest and joins a urine tribe of Na’vi .

WatchAvatar : The manner of WateronDisney+ .

8. Dunkirk (2017)

You ’re lead to seeChristopher Nolan‘s name come up a lot on this list , and that ’s because few filmmakers have so thoroughly embraced IMAX as he has . Nolan ’s World War II epic , Dunkirk , was filmed almost entirely in IMAX . In addition to using IMAX cameras to film vintage aircraft and boats , Nolan was also the first theatrical director to use handheld IMAX cameras in a mainstream movie .

Dunkirkis free-base on the straight story of what could have been the untimely end of World War II . After British and Gallic force lost the Battle of France , they were pinned down on the shoring of Dunkirk by the foe . It took an over-the-top effort , including British civilian ship , to rescue the troops and allow them to fight another sidereal day .

WatchDunkirkonPeacock .

7. Avengers: Infinity War (2018)

Almost every superhero picture show catch an IMAX release , butAvengers : Infinity Warand its subsequence , Avengers : Endgame , have the distinction of being the first major studio moving picture to be entirely filmed with IMAX digital cameras . Anthony and Joe Russo not only had a bigger canvas to fill the projection screen , they also had the narration momentum of almost every late Marvel Studios film to day of the month leading to this crossover issue .

Several parts of this movie seem like they were designed to make the interview cheer , especially when Spider - Man ( Tom Holland ) and the Guardians of the Galaxy show up . But this story belongs toThanos(Josh Brolin ) , and his victory gave the film a really shocking cliffhanger .

WatchAvengers : Infinity WaronDisney+ .

6: Gravity (2013)

Alfonso Cuarón gain an Oscar for Best Director , thanks in no small part to his bright carry out utilisation of the IMAX data formatting . Sandra Bullock is n’t actually float above the Earth during this movie , but Cuarón specifically make up one’s mind to filmGravitylike a documentary film so that audiences could buy the illusion of outer space .

Bullock spends most of the movie onscreen by herself because her character , Ryan Stone , is the only subsister after her space birdie is ruin in electron orbit . And without that ship , Ryan ’s chances of survival or rescue are slight to none .

WatchGravityonNetflix .

5. Avengers: Endgame (2019)

How do you top the sheer spectacle ofAvengers : Infinity War ? ForAvengers : Endgame , the Russo brother start minuscule as the team was forced to deal with their devastating defeat in the old moving picture . They also had to dwell on their personal loss as well . With three hour of screen time to act with , there was enough room for those character beats before the Avengers literally dived back into their early film for a fourth dimension stickup .

BothInfinity WarandEndgameare available to stream onDisney+in the IMAX ratio . The two films are reasonably close in terms of quality , butEndgamegets the edge with its more crowd - pleasing moments and an larger-than-life struggle between an army of Avengers and Thanos ’ force .

WatchAvengers : EndgameonDisney+ .

4. Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol (2011)

TheMission : Impossible movieshave been so successful that it ’s easygoing to forget that the franchise was essentially done afterMission : Impossible IIIin 2006 . It take another five year beforeThe Incrediblesdirector Brad Bird made his live - action at law directorial debut withMission : unimaginable – Ghost Protocol . That cinema revitalized the dealership . And for his first meter in the big chairperson , Bird insist on using IMAX camera for key part of the movie , including a sequence where Tom Cruise climbs the human race ’s tallest construction , the Burj Khalifa , on positioning in Dubai .

Ghost Protocolfinds Cruise ’s Ethan Hunt in blistering weewee with both the American government activity and the Russians after he ’s charge for a terrorist attack in Moscow . That ’s why Ethan and his total IMF team , William Brandt ( Jeremy Renner ) , Benji Dunn ( Simon Pegg ) , and Jane Carter ( Paula Patton ) , have to go rascal to authorize their names and save the twenty-four hours .

WatchMission : Impossible – Ghost ProtocolonParamount+ .

3. The Dark Knight (2008)

Nolan ’s IMAX journey began inThe Dark Knight , which was also the first big Hollywood production to utilise IMAX cameras . Only a few of the photographic film ’s sequence were shoot in IMAX , including the opening banking concern looting and the thrilling detour to Hong Kong which proved that “ Batman has no jurisdiction . ” He snuff it where he wants to go .

The third film , The Dark Knight uprise , feature more IMAX camera work thanThe Dark Knight . ButThe Dark Knightearns its place on this list for being one of the all - metre great superhero movies , if not the greatest . Batman ( Christian Bale ) in conclusion met his match inThe Joker(Heath Ledger ) , and the streak was set eminent for all future cinematic trip to Gotham City .

WatchThe Dark KnightonMax .

2. Interstellar (2014)

Nolan importantly ramped up his use of IMAX cameras forInterstellar , his first real speculation into scientific discipline fiction . Space has rarely seemed larger than in this movie or more presentiment . Additionally , Nolan ’s preference for hardheaded effects and sets made both the distance shuttle interior and exterior major planet pellet seem more real .

Matthew McConaughey play Joseph Cooper , a former NASA fender who is enter to join Dr. Amelia Brand ( Anne Hathaway ) and others on a long - terminus mission in space to find a new rest home for humanity before Earth becomes unlivable . The Leontyne Price for that journey is that Cooper misses the life history of his children , including his now adult daughter , Murph ( Jessica Chastain ) , who in turn has to figure out a direction to get human race off - world . belatedly in this moving-picture show , there ’s a sequence where Cooper ’s worked up turmoil is joined with striking visuals as the result gift itself .

WatchInterstellaronParamount+ .

1. Oppenheimer (2023)

It was n’t a surprise thatOppenheimerwon the Oscar for Best Picture as it was a vital collision and a surprising achiever at the box office , the latter was driven by the collective need to see it in IMAX . Nolan ’s tardy photographic film once again extensively use IMAX tv camera . UnlikeThe Dark Knight , Dunkirk , orInterstellar , the story is n’t driven by action or personal effects . Instead , it ’s about the race to work up the atomic bomb calorimeter , as well as more intimate spectacular scenes like senate verification and security listening that do n’t often make for center showing . In this cinema , they are .

Nolan used mordant - and - white IMAX moving-picture show during a few sequences inOppenheimer , which does n’t unfold in a typically linear style . alternatively , the living of J. Robert Oppenheimer ( Cillian Murphy ) is show before , during , and after his part in The Manhattan Project , as well as dart forwards to a disastrous security earreach that was meant to destroy his report . Meanwhile , a disjoined part of the narrative belongs to Lewis Strauss ( Robert Downey Jr. ) as he pay the price for his efforts to light upon back at Oppenheimer . It ’s a fantastic movie from first to terminate and also the elevation of IMAX filmmaking to date .

WatchOppenheimeronPeacock .