Science Museum of Minnesota among 7 Imax Wonders of the World

The St. Paul mechanical marvel shares the honor with diverse structures from France to Australia, but was the only IMAX theater from the United States to be so honored by the popular tech blog.

The feature that separated Minnesota's IMAX theater from the rest of the American competition was it's use of technology. "It was the pioneer of the convertible screen, which features both a flat screen and a dome that can be rotated to show made-for-domes IMAX movies known as Omnifilms," Gizmodo writes.

We could have gone with the oppressively garish "Broadway at Myrtle Beach" IMAX for the sole American entry, or even the world's largest IMAX dome (though not the largest screen) in the Liberty Science Centre in Jersey City. But for us, the Science Museum of Minnesota's crazy convertible dual-screen system takes the cake in the States. It was the pioneer of the convertible screen, which features both a flat screen and a dome that can be rotated to show made-for-domes IMAX movies known as Omnifilms. It also boasts the "largest permanently installed electronic cinema projector in the world," but the massive mechanical structure is what placed this theatre on our list: The exterior of the theatre actually had to be built around the screen's mechanism!