Tampa's MOSI transforming former IMAX theater into country's second largest digital dome planetarium

Tampa’s Museum of Science and Industry has out-of-this-world plans for its former IMAX theater.  

In 2025, MOSI will open a new digital dome theater with cutting-edge 8k technology and the country’s second-largest digital dome planetarium in the former IMAX space. 

MOSI CEO John Graydon Smith unveiled the ambitious plans during a December 4th press event attended by Tampa Mayor Jane Castor, Hillsborough County Commissioner Chris Boles, Temple Terrace Mayor Andy Ross, and other community leaders. The announcement took place outdoors, against the backdrop of the IMAX theater’s iconic blue dome.

“People remember coming here when it was an IMAX theater,” Graydon Smith says at the event.”But that dome has sat vacant ostensibly for the last eight years or so. I’ve been here two years and the first thing I noticed when I got to campus is that it shouldn’t sit vacant for much longer. It’s a fantastic asset for this community. It’s on the Tampa Monopoly board for God’s sake.”

A still underway multi-million dollar fundraising effort has brought in a mix of public MOSIIn 2025, MOSI will open a new digital dome theater and the country’s second-largest digital dome planetarium in the space formerly occupied by its long-closed IMAX theater.and private funding for the project. Workers have replaced the old IMAX theater’s screen with a state-of-the-art seamless, rivetless screen. Next comes the installation of 10 large-scale, high-powered Christie digital projectors, a state-of-the-art sound system, and laser projectors. When finished, the theater will offer a 360-degree movie, laser light show, and planetarium experience on an eight-story screen. MOSI’s new, expanded version of the Saunders Planetarium will also have space for an audience of more than 300, a massive increase from the current capacity of 46.

“This is a surround you with science experience,” Graydon Smith says at the announcement. “We do that at MOSI. We’re all about immersion. We’re all about coming in and forgetting that you’re learning. You're gonna come in and forget that you’re on Earth when you’re in that building watching a show. We can take you to outer space. You can watch an underwater movie…When I talk about immersive, this isn’t what you have in your man cave, folks. This is blow-your-mind technology.”

MOSI leadership also sees the new digital dome theater and planetarium as a way to introduce the locally iconic IMAX space to a new generation of school children and to get students interested in the in-demand science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) fields. A MOSI press release cites a U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics report projecting STEM jobs will increase by 11 percent by 2031, which is almost four times the projected rate for non-STEM jobs.

Thanks to the Hillsborough County Public Schools one-mill property tax referendum voters approved in November, the new theater and planetarium will open around the same time the Hillsborough public school system has a dedicated funding source to send every fourth-grader on a field trip to MOSI.

For more information, go to MOSI