Updated for summer 2023, here is our big list of the most high-tech cinemas in town. We're talking mega screen, laser technology, Dolby surround whatever coming at you in five, six, and seven dimensions. If you're looking for a summer blockbuster experience on a screen built for said experience, make the special trip down to one of these.
Because when you see Barbie this week (it comes out on Friday, July 21), you're going to want that pink color palette seared into your very soul.
But If You Just Want to See a Movie...
But hey, if you're just looking for a normal, quality cinema experience, Palace Cinemas, a chain, is a sure bet. They get the job done. They are usually in high-end shopping malls, which you pay for (IMAX 3D typically 110rmb+), but you do get a very pleasant movie experience.
Downtown, there are Palace chains at IAPM, Raffles, and IFC. Easy peasy.
Take advantage of Taobao's Taopiaopiao (淘票票) app. It can also be accessed inside Alipay. The "特色" (specialty) button helps you filter out cinemas based on the major formats they support: dual-projector 3D, 4DX, RealD, Laser Projection, and more.
Here's a full guide on how to buy cinema tickets in Shanghai.
The hunt for the highest specs in Shanghai requires you to get out of downtown. The best specs are in the mega-malls outside the city center. That's what you're scrolling down to see.
But first...
We're already well into summer blockbuster season, with strong China box office openings for the sure-bets: Avatar 2, Fast X, and Guardians of the Galaxy 3, properties from franchises that did well in China the first time around (or first several times). Other Hollywood blockbusters, not so much: The Flash and The Little Mermaid have already come and gone, and Indiana Jones, while still in theaters, tanked even harder than expected. See that, like, NOW if you watch to catch it.
Currently in Theaters: Mission Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One; Transformers: Rise of the Beasts; Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny; Spider-Man: Across The Spider-Verse.
Coming Soon: Barbie (July 21); To Catch A Killer (July 28); Grand Turismo (August 11); Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem (TBA).
Lastly, just FYI Oppenheimer won't be getting a Mainland China release but if you're in Hong Kong, it opens on the island on July 23.
The Cinemas
Wanda Cinema (Wujiaochang) 五角场万达
- The Formats: Digital IMAX, Onyx, ScreenX, 4DX, Dolby Atmos, RealD 6FL, Dolby Cinema
- The Highlight: The first Onyx theater in Shanghai
Wanda: the back story is even more exciting. (Google it.)
This Wanda cinema is the first in China to launch Samsung's Cinema "Onyx" LED Screen, a crisp, sharp, and really bright screen, great for appreciating the details of a 3D movie. The battery-powered glasses are light and clear. The sound system is from JBL by HARMAN. This cinema also has three theaters equipped with both RealD 6FL and Christine 4K.
Techno-babble aside: serious business.
More Wanda: Wanda has a couple of other locations in town, including Wanda Cinema (Jinhongqiao Plaza), featuring Onyx screens, as well as a third Dolby screen in Shanghai at the Zhuanqiao Wanda (颛桥万达) in Minhang.
The environment is also done well. The screens aren't the biggest but if you aren't a size queen, you'll appreciate the quality.
Hongxing Cinema 红星电影世界
- The Formats: Dolby Cinema, LUXE 2.0 (20m wide), Meyer Sound EXP, RealD 6FL
- The Highlight: The first Dolby Cinema in Shanghai
Shanghai's first Dolby cinema is on the top floor of Aegean Place in Minhang, right next to the wanghong Xinhua Bookstore designed by Tadao Ando. This cinema provides a great listening experience. Because aside from its Dolby cinema (with Dolby Atmos, of course), it also has a theater with Meyer Sound EXP, which is what professional filmmakers use while recording films. Hear what the directors hear.
Though Dolby has a smaller screen size than IMAX Laser (which debuted in Shanghai at HOYTS), it has better contrast: purer blacks, higher brightness, and an expanded color gamut. The seats, which have a lot of legroom, recline. Hongxing also has a dedicated children's theater, which has colorful Tetris-themed walls and chairs. If I have to nitpick, their 3D glasses are a little run-down. Still, Hongxing has many quality theaters and competent staff. There are also plenty of eateries close by as well as the Pearl Art Museum — enough to make it worth a half-day trip.
HOYTS (IMIX Park) 寰映影城
- The Formats: Dolby Cinema, IMAX Laser, 4K RealD, MX4D
- The Highlight: The first next-generation IMAX Laser projection
HOYTS is a sub-brand of Wanda, so the design and style are similar. It's the first cinema in Eastern China to have the latest IMAX Laser projection, which is a brighter and more colorful upgrade from the common IMAX Xenon digital projection. HOYTS also has a huge IMAX screen, at one point the biggest at 25.9m wide and 13.5m tall, which comes with IMAX's 12-channel sound technology.
The Jing'an IMIX Park Mall is big, loud, and confusing. You run a gauntlet of restaurants to get to the theater. And HOYTS's amenities aren't great. The lounge sucks and the toilet is hidden in the back of a coffee shop. Having said that, they make up for it in the viewing experience.
SFC Cinema (Grand Gateway) 永华影城
- The Formats: Twin-digital IMAX 3D, Onyx, 4DX, RealD 6FL
- The Highlight: Onyx theater with adjustable massage chairs
Formerly called Yonghua Cinema, SFC Cinema in the Grand Gateway Mall used the Covid downtime to modernize their facilities a bit. SFC is good for eye candy. Look at those ticket scanners! So future! Wi-fi is strong and fast, so you can sit in a massage chair as you watch a movie in the Onyx theater (15rmb for 100 minutes). There are two VIP rooms. The bathrooms are clean and sleek.
SFC has the most convenient location of all the cinemas listed here and the only Onyx screen downtown.
橙天嘉禾 OSGH (LuOne)
- The Formats: Star MAX, Dolby Atmos, MX4D
- The Highlight: IMAX with stars
Star MAX? What the hell is Star MAX?
IMAX. With stars.
It's more than that actually. Star MAX uses a hybrid of technologies from Dolby Laboratories, Sony, Klipsch, and others, and has a giant curved screen. The screen at OSGH's theater #6 is 20m wide and 8.5m tall. Although it's said to be equipped with Barco's 4K Laser projector, the details and contrast of the screen are close to digital IMAX than the higher-level IMAX Laser or Dolby Vision. The 3D effect is very in-your-face, but for fast action sequences, it can be blurry. The theater intends to make you feel as if you are watching the film in a galaxy — the "stars" will be twinkling during the entire film, which might distract some people.
OSGH also has an MX4D theater. Compared with the more common 4DX, MX4D theater seats have a much stronger and faster "rollercoaster" effect, but other differences are less distinct.
OSGH offers an experience similar to digital IMAX with a better sound system and given its almost-downtown location. Ticket prices are good value.
Shanghai Film Art Center 上海影城
- The Formats: RealD, OnyxLED, Dolby Atmos, 4K
- The Highlight: Oriental Mega Screen
Here is it, the most famous movie theater in Shanghai, the Shanghai Film Art Center on Xinhua Lu. The home base for the Shanghai Film Festival, they upgraded their "oriental mega screen"(东方巨幕) in 2016, making Shanghai one of only five cities in the world technically advanced enough to screen the 4K/3D/120 fps movies. The theater itself is massive, the biggest auditorium in Shanghai, and the quality is great. On top of that, last year, the Shanghai Film Art Center underwent a complete year-long renovation, modernizing into the undulating structure you see above and rechristening that palatial viewing hall, the "SFC Dolby Auditorium". Haven't had the chance to go yet but it's at the top of our list to catch something Transformers-y.
MOViE MOViE (Qiantan Taikoo Li)
- The Formats:IMAX 3D, Onyx, 4DX, RealD 6FL
- The Highlight: Second biggest IMAX screen; Pudong-located
This is Shanghai's first MOViE MOViE theater -- it's a Hong Kong thing -- and on top of the super sleek and modern design, it also features the second largest IMAX screen in Shanghai. So yeah. Huge screen. IMAX. Convenient for people in Pudong. Nuff said.
And also...
RealD's LUXE provides good value for the price. Palace Cinema at Changning Raffles, Palace Cinema at The Mixc in Minhang, and Hongxing Cinema. Tickets at LUXE cinemas are much cheaper: blockbusters are less than 80rmb on weekends.
CGV Qibao is almost as ambitious as Wanda. The cinema is equipped with an IMAX (digital, 19.3m wide), Sphere X, ScreenX, 4DX, and Gold Class. They also have another location at the Sinar Mas Plaza.
Palace Cinema (One East)is also openthe shopping center One East. They've got quite a few IMAX screens and sofas in some rooms. Comfy. Cozy. Lush – as always. The price in this location is slightly cheaper than the ones in the center, roughly from 60rmb to 80rmb per ticket.
Meanwhile, CGV has extended its reach into outer Pudong and Jiading. Both these venues offer Dolby cinema and4DX experience in private-ish "gold class" rooms.
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