WHEN Bradford's IMAX screen, standing nearly 50ft high, first opened in June, 1983, we had never seen anything quite like it.

As the first audience settled into the 340-seat auditorium, they were warned: "Fasten your seatbelts". There followed a half-hour IMAX film, To Fly, leaving viewers feeling as though they were "teetering on the edge of a vast window", according to a T&A report.

The same report captured the jubilant mood as Bradford welcomed the star attraction of "the most modern, the most exciting museum in Britain".

"For Bradford to have landed this catch is pretty near miraculous," continued the T&A. "No wonder there have been several jealous mutterings in London's museum world".

In June, more than 30 years after the doors first opened on the IMAX, the cinema closed for a major upgrade, costing £780,000 from the Department for Culture, Media and Sport. Last month the new 60ft by 48ft screen was lowered into the National Media Museum by a large crane.

Today the IMAX re-opens, and is celebrated this month with the Festival of IMAX, bringing the summer's blockbusters to the screen, which remains the biggest in Yorkshire.

The new-look cinema includes a digital projection system and improved seating with more leg room and 36 'luxury seats'.

"This upgrade will be incredibly valuable to us, along with our partnership with Picturehouse Cinemas, in achieving our ambition to help make Bradford the place in Yorkshire to see film," said director of the National Media Museum, Jo Quinton-Tulloch. "It means more films for us and the city, and a better experience for our audience."

When the IMAX opened in Bradford in 1983, at a cost of £2.4 million, it was the first IMAX cinema in Europe, with a screen five storeys high and a six channel sound system. The auditorium became a centre point for Bradford's annual film festivals and was the venue for the Museum's series of interviews with leading figures in film, including Martin Scorsese, Sir Richard Attenborough, Alan Bennett, Sir David Puttnam, Nick Park and Ken Loach.

Perforated with thousands of tiny holes to allow the crystal clear sound to flow through it freely, the IMAX offers a cinematic experience like no other.

In 1999 the National Museum of Photography, Film and Television, as it was, underwent a £16m overhaul, making it the only venue of its kind in the world to offer both 3D and 2D IMAX, as well as Cinerama, 70mm wide-screen and 35mm-size movies. The red carpet was laid out for actor Pierce Brosnan, the James Bond of the time, when he opened the new-look museum, chatting to delighted crowds who lined the streets eagerly awaiting his arrival.

The overhaul included an upgrade of the IMAX projection system with a £1.9 million grant - the country's second biggest arts lottery pay-out.

"Welcome to the future", said the T&A in a specially produced supplement celebrating the re-vamped museum. "The National Museum of Photography, Film and Television has crossed the frontier into the 21st Century."

The museum's film programme has since been broadened over the years to include specially-made IMAX films alongside digitally re-mastered blockbusters, including Harry Potter and Spiderman movies, with added spectacular 3D and IMAX scenes.

In 2001 the Duke of Kent, a museum trustee, was guest of honour at the premiere of the first animated 3D film Cyberworld, designed for the IMAX screen.

Bradford's new IMAX cinema takes the giant screen into a new era of film. This month's Festival of IMAX includes screenings of recent Hollywood blockbusters, from action movies to family favourites. The programme includes Ant Man, Jurassic World, Mad Max: Fury Road, Mission Impossible - Rogue Nation, The Man from UNCLE, Pixels and Inside Out.

Future screenings planned for this autumn include the new Bond movie, Spectre, and Star Wars: The Force Awakens.

Today's opening marks a new phase for the National Media Museum and its partnership with the Picturehouse cinema group, which runs the venue's cinemas.

Jo Quinton-Tulloch says the cinemas provide an income “critical to the sustainable future” of the museum. With the National Media Museum not long ago emerging from dark shadows of a closure threat, and a new rival multi-screen 'boutique cinema' planned for the new Broadway shopping development, backed by Bradford Council, the business of attracting cinema-goers to the museum is a vital way of taking it further into the 21st century.