Superlative: The largest cinema screen in the world can be found in Swabia

Where do you expect the largest cinema screen in the world?

In New York?

In Shanghai?

In Tokyo?

Far from it, it's in our country, in Leonberg," says film theater operator Heinz Lochmann, owner and managing director of Heinz Lochmann Filmtheater-Betriebe GmbH from Rudersberg.

Instead of taking a cautious approach during the pandemic, he presented his latest showpiece to the public on September 30, 2021, the “Traumpalast” in Leonberg.

According to Lochmann, the extensive expansion of the cinema complex, which now also includes three restaurants and a bowling center, cost around 20 million euros - of which around 1.5 million went to the screen and the associated technology such as the 12-channel sound system Dolby Atmos.

"But that's money well invested," says Lochmann.

"Because the screen impressively demonstrates the advantages of the laser cinema system from the Canadian IMAX Corporation for the 600 spectators." These consist in the fact that particularly brilliant, sharp and colour-intensive images are produced by two projectors running in parallel.

"And the bigger the screen, the more impressive the cinematic experience," Lochmann is convinced.

"Of course, like every father, it made me extremely proud when it became apparent that my son and daughter wanted to get into the family business," says Lochmann.

"That gave me the incentive to leave them something big, and that's how the idea of ​​building the world's largest IMAX screen came about."

The first canvas was cut

The screen was made in Canada and is 38 by 22 meters as big as four tennis courts.

However, the prerequisite for this special screen experience is that the films must have been produced in 3D IMAX mode, i.e. with two cameras at the same time that are as far apart as human eyes are.

This promotes the so-called vection effect, which gives the impression that the viewer is moving himself.

Many blockbusters of recent years have been produced in this way.

However, even transporting the screen with a huge low-loader and assembling it posed major challenges for Lochmann.

In order to apply five layers of silver, which produce brighter images through more reflection, the screen first had to be hung in a hockey hall.

After applying the material, her weight was about 770 kilos.

When the screen was finally installed in Leonberg, it took 60 men around three hours just to pull it up.

And then the shock: when the canvas hung, surprising defects appeared;

it had to be cut up, and a new one was ordered in a hurry.

"Fortunately we were able to open for the new James Bond," says Lochmann.

"I wanted to try out how the visitors react when the cinema is not directly in the city center but, as in Leonberg, at a busy motorway junction," explains Lochmann.

So far the response has been good, with some people coming from far away.

Lochmann needs a capacity utilization of about 35 percent for the operation to be worthwhile.

But even in the pandemic, this quota is reached.

"When I found out that we had a screen like this in our country, it was clear that I had to go there," says a visitor who traveled from Biberach an der Riss.

The screen cannot be compared to any that he has seen.

"I'm happy to pay a higher price for that."

Also owner of a traditional cinema in Hamburg

At the age of 16, Lochmann began training as a baker in his father's business.

When his aunt dies and Lochmann's father inherits her cinema in Rudersberg, he discovers his passion for cinema.

At the age of 30 he concentrates entirely on the cinema.

Five years later he buys a cinema in Schorndorf.

Other movie theaters in the region follow;

But Lochmann is also the operator of the long-established Passage cinema on Mönckebergstrasse in Hamburg.

There are now ten movie theaters.

Lochmann employs 500 to 700 people, depending on the season and the popularity of the films.

On average, a good 2 million visitors come to its cinemas every year.

Before Corona, sales were in the low double-digit million range;

about 70 percent of it came from ticket sales.

However, the proceeds in the pandemic fell by around 70 percent.

Lochmann is confident about the future of cinema.

“Crying, laughing, cheering together, that’s what cinema is all about.

And we don't want to do without that in the future, do we?

The article comes from the student project "Youth and Business", which the FAZ organizes together with the Association of German Banks.