Apple Valley, Minnesota Citizen campaign
Bring back the big screen.
Minnesota once had a seven-story screen built for true 15/70 IMAX film. Help bring it back to the place that made it unforgettable: the Minnesota Zoo.
The screen was the landmark
Seven stories.
Nearly 100 feet.
Gone dark.
From 1997 to 2019, the Minnesota Zoo was home to one of the great movie screens in America—a giant-format theater where nature documentaries, Hollywood films, and once-in-a-generation releases became shared Minnesota memories.
The building still stands. The audience is still here. This campaign asks the Minnesota Zoo, Marcus Theatres, and IMAX to explore a real path back to 15/70 film in Apple Valley—and to tell Minnesota what it would take.
Built to fill your field of view.
Theater dimensions and history: Star Tribune and LF Examiner.
Why 15/70 film
Fifteen perforations.
Seventy millimeters.
Nothing small about it.
In 15/70 IMAX, 70mm film runs horizontally through the projector, using fifteen perforations for every enormous frame. It is a physical format made for screens that tower over an audience—not a label applied to an ordinary auditorium.
Minnesota helped build an audience for that experience. Bringing it back would make the zoo a film destination again and give a new generation the chance to understand why the format still matters.
A Minnesota movie memory
The screen went dark.
The story didn’t end.
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The doors open
The giant-screen theater opens at the Minnesota Zoo, pairing nature films with major releases.
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The final show
IMAX closes the Apple Valley theater on January 27. Minnesota loses its true 15/70 screen.
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We ask what’s possible
A new citizen campaign calls for a serious public study—and a partnership capable of bringing film back.
The next frame is ours
A screen this big
needs a crowd.
Ask Minnesota’s decision-makers and theater partners to give true 70mm IMAX a future here. One name takes less than a minute. A full house can change the conversation.