Lucasfilm announced both the 1977 Star Wars: A New Hope 50th anniversary re-release and Star Wars: Starfighter will screen in IMAX 70mm in 2027. Disney launched its own premium theater certification, Infinity Vision, five months ago. Yet, Star Wars is seemingly skipping it.
Disney spent April telling audiences it had built the best way to watch a Disney movie. In September it sent Star Wars somewhere else.
Lucasfilm announced Tuesday that both of its 2027 theatrical releases will screen in IMAX 70mm. The newly restored Star Wars (1977) arrives February 19, 2027, and Star Wars: Starfighter follows on May 28, 2027, the exact 50th anniversary weekend of the original film’s premiere.
Neither release mentions Infinity Vision, the premium theater certification Disney launched five months ago in response to IMAX not running Avengers: Doomsday.
What Disney announced in April
At CinemaCon on April 16, The Walt Disney Studios introduced Infinity Vision, describing it as a certification for premium large format auditoriums meeting specific technical standards.
Those standards cover the largest screens, laser projection, and premium audio. More than 75 domestic and 300 global PLF screens were eligible at launch.
“Infinity Vision certification extends that commitment to the theaters themselves,” said Andrew Cripps, Disney’s head of theatrical distribution, promising audiences could find “the very best screens in their area to experience our films in exactly the way they’re designed to be seen.”
The program rolled out with the September re-release of Avengers: Endgame and carries into Avengers: Doomsday this December.
Basically, Disney was mad they couldn’t release in IMAX, so they made up a certification theaters could use (Disney rarely does anything for free) and then announced Star Wars was simply going back to IMAX.
Why bother with Infinity Vision then?
Infinity Vision is a label, not a format
IMAX is a proprietary system with its own cameras, aspect ratios, projection technology, and purpose-built theaters. IMAX 70mm is actual film running through actual projectors at a 1.43:1 aspect ratio, closer to a square than a rectangle.
Infinity Vision is a certification Disney applies to premium screens that already exist. It does not change the projection, the screen, or the sound system. It tells you which auditorium Disney considers good enough.
Commercially, they are absolutely competing brands, and Disney just handed its biggest 2027 releases to the other one.
Why Disney followed the money
IMAX 70mm locations have delivered a record $78 million in global box office this year, a per-screen average of $1.9 million, with theaters selling out for weeks across round-the-clock showtimes.
Most of that came from Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey, the first narrative feature shot entirely on IMAX 70mm cameras. It has become the highest-grossing IMAX release of all time at more than $450 million globally.
Disney watched a competitor’s format print money all summer and responded by putting Star Wars in it.
However, it could seem like a slap in the face to the theaters that made deals for Infinity Vision.
The scarcity is the entire point
Here is what makes IMAX 70mm different from a certification program.
Only 34 theaters in North America can properly screen the format. Each 70mm print reportedly costs around $80,000 to produce.
Compare that to more than 75 domestic Infinity Vision screens. Disney built a program designed to make premium presentation widely findable, then chose a format that is deliberately, expensively rare.
Scarcity is what drives the $1.9 million per-screen average. A certification covering 75 auditoriums cannot generate that, because the whole appeal of IMAX 70mm is that most people cannot get to one.
A New Hope has never played IMAX
The original 1977 film has been re-released repeatedly across five decades, most recently as the 1997 Special Edition, and it has never been presented in IMAX in any format, digital or film. Later Star Wars films have played IMAX digital, but the film that launched the franchise never has.
The February release is a new restoration, screening across select IMAX 70mm locations plus a wider limited run in standard theaters.
How Lucasfilm converts a 1977 film shot on 35mm to 70mm IMAX prints has not been explained.
Starfighter was built for this
Starfighter was shot with IMAX-certified film cameras under the Filmed for IMAX program, then converted to 70mm prints. The format was part of the plan rather than a retrofit.
Shawn Levy directs, from a script by Jonathan Tropper, with Ryan Gosling as Kade Auberon, a cynical rogue confronted by his past. The cast includes Matt Smith, Mia Goth, Aaron Pierre, Amy Adams, Jamael Westman, Daniel Ings, and Flynn Gray. Levy produces alongside Kathleen Kennedy.
It is a standalone story set five years after The Rise of Skywalker.
What this says about Disney’s premium strategy
The split runs along division lines. Marvel Studios gets Infinity Vision for Endgame and Doomsday because Disney made up the certification to sell tickets specifically for these films that do not have an IMAX slot. Lucasfilm gets IMAX for both 2027 Star Wars releases.
That is not an accident of scheduling. It is Disney conceding, in practice, that its own certification is not the ceiling. When the studio wanted the biggest possible presentation for its 50th anniversary, it went to a partner rather than its own program.
Infinity Vision is just not IMAX 70mm, and Disney’s own release schedule now says so. I’m sure the films will be released and upcharged on both formats.
Article compiled with the help of the Pirates & Princesses newsroom.
Pirates and Princesses is your destination for Disney news, theme park updates, and the pop culture you love. From Disney cruises and travel tips to Disney fashion, food, collectibles, and movie news, PNP covers it all. Visit us at piratesandprincesses.net for daily coverage. Follow PNP on Facebook and Instagram, and listen to the Pirates & Princesses podcast on Apple Podcasts and YouTube.
Hat Tips:
StarWars.com (September 8, 2026), the official announcement, the February 19 and May 28, 2027 dates, the first-ever IMAX presentation of the 1977 film, and the Filmed for IMAX details for Starfighter
The Walt Disney Company (April 16, 2026), the Infinity Vision certification announcement, the technical standards, the PLF screen counts, and the Andrew Cripps quote
Variety (September 8, 2026), the IMAX 70mm box office figures, the per-screen average, and the Starfighter cast and crew
MickeyBlog (September 8, 2026), the 34 North American IMAX 70mm theaters, the $80,000 print cost, and The Odyssey production budget
Gizmodo (September 8, 2026), Germain Lussier’s breakdown of the 1.43:1 aspect ratio and how IMAX 70mm differs from other formats