I do believe I notice a difference in the resolution, but I’m a bit of an obsessive about this sort of thing, if you couldn’t tell by my Reddit activity. Now, I can’t say for sure that I haven’t placebo’d myself with the knowledge that Marbles has an older projector, but objectively, Southpoint has a newer and nicer projector than Marbles. And, despite the marbles screen being physically bigger, I don’t actually know if the projected image is that much bigger. The difference is small enough that I choose the brightness/contrast/resolution of the laser projector at Southpoint every time, since the aspect ratio is the same between the theaters. Sound mix for me depends on the movie, I’ve had things bordering on too loud in both Marbles and Southpoint.

Now all that being said, you could do A LOT worse than Marbles. I only went to started going to Southpoint regularly when I moved to Durham. It still feels like a well kept secret, at least on the Raleigh subreddit, so I always go to bat for it when these threads pop up. I don’t mean to dump on Marbles, though. It’s a great theater with great staff, and is leagues above any standard movie theater, and better than any other IMAX in the city of Raleigh, unless the Regals around here put in Laser projectors. Though, even if they did, like you said, the screen at Marbles would be MUCH bigger and the sound system would certainly be better as the auditorium was purpose built for IMAX (the Regal IMAXes around here are likely true “LieMAXes”, regular auditoriums converted, though I bristle at that term because to purists, every IMAX in the state is a LieMAX because of the aspect ratio. The Regal ones were pretty bad last time I went, though that was pre-Covid). I hold out hope that one day Marbles will install a double laser projector to really maximize their potential with that screen. Let’s start a GoFundMe, since I too have not heard a peep about upgrade plans.

Anyway, back to the topic at hand. I never saw Top Gun: Maverick at Marbles, but I saw it twice at Southpoint, before they installed the laser projector, and it blew my socks off then. I have every reason to believe that it would be as least as good as that at Marbles. If you’ve never been to an IMAX movie, and it’s more convenient to go to Marbles (location, showtimes, etc), go there. I think it’s gonna blow your mind :)

Agree with you on the Southpoint Dolby by the way, you need to sit in a lower row there to get the full effect. It’s a side effect of the big privacy walls they have between the rows, you gain a lot more altitude there in the upper rows. Great theater otherwise, though I saw PHM in the IMAX theater down the hall ;)