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In a few places this weekend, the war raging on-screen in Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen will mirror a real-life battle that is brewing between the reigning king of big-screen cinema, IMAX, and at least two budding contenders.

In Cinemark USA’s Plano, Texas theater, the film will be splashed on a screen 70-feet wide and 38-feet high and blasted through 30 new JBL speakers. Cinemark launched its big-screen offering, called XD3, in March and it has been a huge success. The chain is already looking to add 10-15 XD3 auditoriums in the next three to six months.

In Toronto, Transformers 2 will be shown in AMC Entertainment Inc.’s new ETX big screen theater. The new concept also offers a huge screen and big sound paired with a digital image aimed at providing an immersive experience. AMC is also looking to expand this concept to other locations.

While both experiments are clearly meant to appeal to the hunger for bigger and louder entertainment that had previously only been fed by IMAX, it is unlikely that either Cinemark or AMC is gunning specifically for IMAX. Both chains are also IMAX customers and both are in talks to add even more IMAX locations.

IMAX says the different formats are not mutually exclusive. The company says that offering varied experiences for moviegoers is key to helping the exhibition industry compete against home theaters, video games and the Internet.

“All of this helps keep the public excited about going to the movies,” says Larry O’Reilly, executive vice president of theater development at IMAX.

O’Reilly, who has visited Cinemark’s XD3 theater, notes that the chain also has an IMAX location in nearby Dallas. Cinemark debuted its XD3 concept with the film Monsters vs Aliens, which also was a hit in Cinemark’s Dallas IMAX theater.

And while Transformers 2 is due to pack the Plano XD3 auditorium, Cinemark is also opening the IMAX version in Dallas.

The new big-screen formats give theater chains greater flexibility in meeting audience expectations in places where opening an IMAX theater is not feasible.

IMAX gives a period of exclusivity to exhibitors who are the first to open one of their theaters in a particular area. With IMAX offering the only big-screen experience in town, this exclusivity prevents nearby chains from competing, especially when IMAX is featuring a major new release, such as the recent Star Trek film.

The Cinemark and AMC big-screen concepts give them the ability to compete more aggressively in areas where they don’t have the exclusive IMAX franchise, even as both chains continue to open new IMAX theaters themselves.

The AMC “Enhanced Theatre Experience” features a 20 percent larger floor-to-ceiling screen, 11-channel surround sound with 57,000 watts of power, and 8.8 million pixels providing 4 times the resolution of HD, according to its website. ETX films command a $2 per ticket premium.

Tickets at the Cinemark XD3 auditorium sell for $3 more. Moviegoers are treated to a 500-seat auditorium with plus seats and an image projected digitally.

“We feel it is important to show the next new blockbuster film in a large screen digital format,” says James Meredith, vice president of marketing at Cinemark.

Meredith would not comment directly on whether XD3 is meant as an IMAX killer, although he says that customers have made the comparison in recent surveys.

One key factor that differentiates XD3 from IMAX is that Cinemark’s new technology gives it greater flexibility to show any first-run film on a wider screen. The screens and digital projectors are also able to show 3D films using technology from Real D.

“We now have the ability to put any movie in that auditorium,” Meredith says.

O’Reilly notes that consumers are not likely to confuse the different big screen formats. For one thing, IMAX uses two projectors to put more information up on the screen, while the Cinemark and AMC technologies use one projector. While all the formats offer more speakers, IMAX remixes the sound specifically for its auditoriums to enhance the immersive nature of the experience, O’Reilly says.

IMAX also gets involved in the moviemaking process to enhance the final product. IMAX cameras were used to film parts of Transformers and the upcoming Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, O’Reilly says. The result is exclusive content in the IMAX 3D format that can’t be shown anywhere else.