Fort Worth’s Omni Theater to reopen this weekend

by Kevin Buchanan of West and Clear

The new Fort Worth Museum Of Science And History is still under construction, but the renovated Omni Theater will reopen this weekend. The Omni has its own entrance now as a standalone building, so the construction on the new museum won’t interfere. Besides the new orange paint job, the Omni boasts a new digital sound system, enhanced lighting, and updated guest facilities. The theater will be showing three new IMAX films this weekend: Dinosaurs Alive!, Deep Sea 3-D, and Mummies: Secrets of the Pharaohs. Check Curtain Call below for show times.

No word just yet if the classic old pre-show helicopter flyover of Fort Worth will still be used. I’d like to see a newly recorded version of it to showcase the city as it stands now. Just as long as it still uses the same music it always has.

Ah, memories. I know I’ve got plenty of the Omni. I remember the many times I stood in that winding, descending ramp in line to the theater when I was a kid. I was there most often with my grandmother, back while I was growing up on a horse ranch out in Parker County. A trip to Fort Worth was always special, and doubly so when we’d go to the Omni. I remember seeing things like Ring of Fire, The Living Sea, and Destiny In Space, usually multiple times. Afterwards we’d go through the museum, and I always wanted to get some of that astronaut ice cream the gift shop sold (yes, I’ve always been a geek. I admit it.). Or alternately, sometimes we’d eat in the museum’s cafeteria, by those windows looking out into that courtyard that used to be there.

It’ll be good to have the Omni back in operation. I just hope they still sell astronaut ice cream.