Subscriber Benefit
As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe NowAfter surviving myriad pandemic-related challenges, alongside the rest of the movie theater and live entertainment industry, the Imax theater downtown has gotten some of its shine back.
Led by Neale Johantgen, the theater was one of just a few dozen in the world to show the 2023 movie “Oppenheimer” in director Christopher Nolan’s preferred format of 70mm film. The opportunity led to nearly a month of nonstop sellouts for the film and high marks for attendance and revenue. Lightning struck a second time in early 2024 with the release of “Dune: Part II,” also in the 70 mm film format.
Johantgen, who has been with the theater nearly four years, said he has high hopes that the momentum will continue to build in 2025—particularly as the theater keeps enhancing the visitor experience and finds new ways to fill seats.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
How are things going for the Imax theater at the State Museum?
This past fiscal year, which ended in June 2024 and included films like “Oppenheimer” and “Dune: Part II,” was an incredible and record-breaking year for us, but the 2024 calendar year was also great overall. We have continued to be within our budgets, and it’s been not only a lot of fun and fulfilling, but business has been good in general.
You mentioned “Oppenheimer” and “Dune.” How has the theater been able to capitalize on specialty screenings like those and others—particularly those formatted for 70mm film?
Our theater is very lucky that we have held on to our Imax film projector and that we also have two Imax projectionists that are on staff regularly. So, we are uniquely positioned in that there are very, very few theaters that have that combination on hand.
Meaning that when new film presentations roll around—“Joker: Folie à Deux” was another one we had—we have fewer hurdles to make that happen. It means Imax corporate doesn’t have to find projectionists to place here since we have people that know our infrastructure, and they’re already here.
So we’re uniquely situated with that, allowing us to show more of those films on unique formats.
How wide of a reach does Indianapolis’ Imax have?
There are so few locations that are doing what we do—not only for the city and the state, but regionally. There’s no Imax film projector location in Illinois, Ohio or Kentucky. There’s a few locations in Michigan, there’s one in St. Louis, and there are some in Nashville, but anything in that bubble we’re really able to tap into. On top of that, there’s just people that either used to live in Indianapolis and they come back here, or they’re just familiar with us, and they think we do a good job.
For both “Oppenheimer” and “Dune: Part II”, there were people that came from Minnesota, Georgia. There’s a group that has come from Maryland. People do come from all over the country, so that really helps us.
How have you seen theatergoers’ attitudes toward the movie experience change since the coronavirus pandemic? Have things bounced back?
I started here in July 2021, so I can only really speak to the rebound rather than what things might have been like before COVID. People may not be going to theaters as much, but when they do, they want a remarkably different experience than what they can see at home, and what you would call premium large-format screens are what they seem to go toward to a higher degree than they ever did before. We definitely fit that: Not only are we an Imax screen, but we’re the largest screen in the state.
Do you think the theater would be in as strong of a shape today had the decision been made to get rid of the 70 mm film projector?
I think we would still be trending upward, and we would still be continuing to gain a following—we would still be doing well financially, for sure. But there is no way we would be bringing in anywhere near the size of crowds if we weren’t able to play certain things on film. A lot of the people that we welcome regionally or even nationally wouldn’t be coming here if we [didn’t] have it on film. There’s also people who live within central Indiana who came here to see one of those big film presentations, and they’ve continued coming back because they liked the experience.
So, if we did not have our film projector, would it make an impact on our business? Yes, absolutely. It’s a very nice ingredient that has helped put us in the position that we are [in].
How have you approached upgrades and improvements to the theater over the past couple of years?
This was my theater of choice before I worked here, and I’m a big movie fan. So I try to approach it from a business perspective—as if, if we do X, Y and Z, it could translate to a better experience and higher guest retention. I also consider what I want to see as a movie fan, from an experience perspective. There’s things that I think it’s fair to say became unpolished during COVID, and there are also things that you just need to do every so many years. Regardless, we had a lot of things we wanted to clean up a bit.
The whole lobby got a fresh coat of paint, and we replaced the lobby and theater carpeting. We also installed some new concession screens that not only look nicer but make things easier to read.
I’ve always got things that I’m working on—nothing that I can announce, by any means, but we’ve got some irons in the fire that would continue in that direction to make our space an even bigger and better experience. The way I look at is, if we’re doing well business-wise, I’d like to take what we can and continue to reinvest in the theater. I see this as a community asset, and not only do I want to maintain where we are, I want to keep improving it.
In addition to the wide-release films and the educational programming tied to the Indiana State Museum, the Imax has also taken on some other opportunities to showcase classic films. What can people expect from that in 2025?
After I took over, we did a six-week summer film series of James Bond movies tied to the character’s 60th anniversary, then we did “The Godfather.” Since then, we’ve been doing a monthly series called “Imax Indy Presents,” with a goal of picking films that were either classics from decades ago or more recent films that deserve to be experienced on our giant screen.
We just wrapped up our second full year of the series, and it continues to do really well. We are continuing it and rebranding it with the moniker “Indy Imax Revivals” and will be reusing the “Presents” tag for major first-run features like “Superman” later this year.
On Jan. 28, we’re going to do “Whiplash.” That will be followed by “Air Force One” on Feb. 11, the same week that the new Captain America film releases; both feature Harrison Ford as president, so we thought that would be fun. We’re playing “The Fifth Element” on March 18, and on Earth Day, April 22, we’re playing the Imax version of the “Free Solo” documentary. On May 20, we’re going to play “Rudy,” and on June 20—the 50th anniversary to the day of its release—we’ll be playing the Imax version of “Jaws.”
Later in the year, we’ll share the slate for the second half of 2025, and I’m really excited about what we’re putting together for that.
What films are you most excited for people to check out at the Imax theater this year?
“Sinners,” the new Ryan Coogler and Michael B. Jordan Film, is releasing on April 18, and I’m really excited about that. I think “F1” is going to be fantastic, and I think we will do particularly well with that here at the theater with our racing culture. “Superman” is going to be great, and there’s going to be the new “Mission: Impossible” movie. When it came out in 2023, “Mission: Impossible: Dead Reckoning” had its Imax run cut short because of “Oppenheimer,” so this one is going to have a more extended run, and I’m excited to see what that’s going to do.
We’ve also got a Led Zeppelin documentary coming out just next month, called “Becoming Led Zeppelin,” that’s going to be a feature-length documentary and really, really cool—we’ll have a promotion to go with that, too. And then “Mickey 17,” the new Bong Joon-ho movie with Robert Pattinson, just looks like a lot of fun, too.
It’s going to be a great year for movie fans.•
Please enable JavaScript to view this content.