You don’t really watch an IMAX movie. You experience it.
The 8-storey screen completely envelops you and draws you right inside the film. Especially if it’s 3D! The movie becomes more intense – its impact seems amplified by the screen size. This is an experience so far removed from a DVD at home that it becomes an event.
And being surrounded by cafes, tourist attractions and playgrounds means it’s easy to turn a trip to see a movie at IMAX Darling Harbour into a fabulous day out in Sydney.

Yay! We left the house!
Last week, being school holidays, I took the kids to their first ever IMAX movie. With Zootopia and The Jungle Book also showing, my choice of America Wild may not have been their preference, but I was super keen!
America Wild 3D
This celebration of U.S. National Parks is an incredible movie for travel-lovers, especially if you love a bit of nature. And it’s perfect for IMAX to show off what it does best.
Soar through the Grand Canyon, watch Old Faithful erupt, and explore famous Yosemite Valley, where the lush forests of redwoods, sheer rock faces and waterfalls threaten to overwhelm with their beauty. It’s the ultimate in armchair travel – see all the natural wonders of the U.S. without getting on a plane! And the most incredible cinematography giving you views that you would never achieve in real life.
With your 3D glasses on that ginormous screen feels like it sucks you right into the scenery!
Plus there’s the adrenalin adventurers that the film follows. They get into some heart-stopping rock-climbing, mountain biking and ice-climbing in an icicle-filled cave straight out of Frozen!
And, as Master 6 says, “It teaches you to be nice to nature. To keep nature clean and not to hurt nature”.
IMAX Movies
IMAX is the perfect format for these experiences of nature. From A Beautiful Planet 3D, which has fascinating footage of astronauts inside the International Space Station as well as stunning imagery of Earth taken from space, to underwater exploration in Under the Sea 3D, to Egypt 3D – Secrets of the Mummies, which would be perfect for Miss 8, who recently finished a school project on Ancient Egypt.

There’s some wonderful-looking movies showing and coming soon
But the best of current movies are also shown at IMAX. This week you’ll find Zootopia 3D and The Jungle Book 3D showing, which were proving extremely popular on the day we were there. Seeing great movies like these in 3D on the IMAX super screen amps up the enjoyment and the impact. Imagine all those animals in The Jungle Book! They would be so big and sooo real!

Some of the movies currently showing
Darling Harbour
There’s so much to do in the Darling Harbour precinct that it’s no effort at all to fill up a whole day –
- Visit SEA LIFE Sydney Aquarium
- Visit WILD LIFE Sydney Zoo
- Visit Madame Tussauds
- Visit Australian National Maritime Museum
- Visit the Powerhouse Museum
- Catch a ferry to/from Darling Harbour
- Play at the Darling Quarter Playground and Water Play
- Have a ride on the carousel, tea cup ride or pirate ship ride
- Go bowling at Kingpin
- Visit the Chinese Garden of Friendship
And there’s plenty of kid-friendly food options –
- Ice cream at Gelatissimo
- Food court at Harbourside
- Pancakes on the Rocks
- Hard Rock Cafe
- Lindt Cafe
- Blackbird Cafe

Playground fun at Darling Quarter
More information – IMAX Darling Harbour
Disclaimer: We visited as guests of IMAX Darling Harbour
Have you seen an IMAX movie?