A The Dark Knight Rises prologue begins Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol. The Dark Knight Rises prologue in front of Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol will apparently be six minutes long and will only be shown in a.) IMAX theaters and b.) IMAX theaters with 70mm IMAX projectors. “Theaters with Digital IMAX projection systems will not show the footage, likely due in part to the fact that those projection systems show significantly lower-resolution images than 70mm IMAX.” That’s right. The preview is only for movie theaters equipped and outfitted for “the true” IMAX experience, not the smaller movie theaters with the smaller screens and lacking the high-end projection and sound equipment.
The official information from AMC theaters:
The six minute Dark Knight Rises prologue footage will only be shown on the higher resolution 70mm IMAX screens. Not the digital IMAX screens. Locations haven’t been confirmed yet, so stay tuned for an update on AMC Theatre locations that will be showing the prologue Dark Knight Rises footage at a 70mm IMAX screen nearest you.
History seems be repeating itself if you keep The Dark Knight in mind:
Just as the bank robbery sequence in The Dark Knight was shown as a prologue in some IMAX theaters in late 2007, we expect this footage to be from the very beginning of the first act of The Dark Knight Rises.
No matter what type of theater it is shown in, someone is going to bootleg it eventually and post it on YouTube opening weekend for Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol, then it will be taken dow, reposted, and taken down all throughout the weekend. Look at what happened with The Dark Knight Rises Teaser Trailer and the bootlegging that went on with that. This is six minutes of film footage.
Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol will be released in US theaters on December 16, 2011. We will keep an eye on which theaters and showtimes The Dark Knight Rises prologue ends up having and will post it promptly.
Source: Geetyrant, Slashfilm, Amctheaters