IMAX Comes to Denver Phipps Auditorium had a glorious run during its forty years as a multipurpose theater, hosting everything from lectures and nature films to plays and accordion recitals. In 1983, the Museum transformed the space into one better suited to regular visitors. The world’s twelfth IMAX theater (pictured top left) brought our visitors a whole new experience. Through the four-and-a-half-story-tall screen that literally fills the eye to the max, visitors could travel to spectacular sites and have exciting adventures all over the world, from outer space to the depths of the ocean. The Phipps IMAX Theater also provided a valuable new source of income for an institution that had lost most of its government support, forcing it to start charging admission.
