(FORTUNE Magazine) – Famous for beautiful yet educational films showcased on huge screens at museums like the Smithsonian Institution, Toronto's Imax Corp. is moving into the mainstream in a big way with its first 3-D feature film, Wings of Courage.

Imax's technology combines two images-one for each eye -created by dual-lens cameras. Filmgoers don a $400 headset and see incredible illusions in three dimensions. Images leap so vividly from the screen that audiences are literally left grasping. And paying. In New York a single Imax screen grossed $100,442 its first three-day weekend-ten times the typical take for a popular movie. Admission is $9. The eight-story, 600-seat theater was built by Sony, which produced Wings and another feature film to debut this fall. Capital Cities/ABC will also make the 3-D movies.

Imax emerged from dusty museum corners after being purchased last March by a group headed by venture capitalists Brad Wechsler and Richard L. Gelfond. Says the latter: "Imax was run by filmmakers and inventors who wanted to show off the beauty of the medium. We said, 'Imagine what you could do if you brought some business focus as well.' " The stock opened at $13.50 last June, then crashed to $6.50 on fears that a rival company would halve the market. That threat receded; the stock recently traded at $12.50.

A rapid expansion is under way: Forty theaters are abuilding, including ones in San Francisco and Berlin, to add to the existing 121. Wechsler believes people who watch videos at home now need something dramatic to draw them out. Says he: "I think the public is beginning to rebel a little from seeing movies in a shoebox."

-- JACQUELINE M. GRAVES