The Bigger Picture

The “new” Gartenbaukino at Parkring 12 opened in 1960, ushering in the era of 70mm widescreen cinema in Austria. Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, 70mm played a major role in the cinema’s success, with the format remaining in use until the early 1990s. When digital sound was introduced in 1993, the magnetic sound system was dismantled, and 70mm presentations ceased for many years.

In 2009, work began on restoring the cinema’s ability to screen 70mm films. Extensive upgrades to the sound system were required, including the addition of five front channels to faithfully reproduce the original six-channel magnetic sound format. The projectors, platter system, and film path also had to be modified, with some components specially manufactured and others acquired from around the world.

In January 2016, after a hiatus of 23 years, the cinema once again presented a film in 70mm with Quentin Tarantino’s The Hateful Eight. The screening proved an immediate success, becoming the Gartenbaukino’s most commercially successful film in more than two decades.

Today, the Gartenbaukino is, alongside the Leokino in Innsbruck, one of only two cinemas in Austria capable of projecting 70mm film, making it one of the country’s last remaining venues where audiences can experience this spectacular large-format process as originally intended.