By Carolyn Giardina

“The Blue Angels” — a new 94-minute documentary in Imax theaters this week from Amazon MGM Studios and Imax about the U.S. Navy’s famed flight demonstration squadron — marks the first production in what Imax senior VP and head of documentaries John Turner described as the large-scale exhibition company’s new strategy, built around the idea of “documentary blockbusters.”

These films would be part of an Imax release program that, in addition to Hollywood classics, would include alternative content ranging from concerts to the traditional 40-minute documentaries, often about space or nature, typically shown in science museums and other specialty venues.

Turner sees documentary blockbusters as feature-length narrative documentaries that would play “alongside” the Hollywood films that are released in Imax. “After 10-plus years of this kind of premium documentary period that we’re in, led by Netflix and Amazon and Apple and so many other players in the market, it’s really advanced the storytelling, the narrative, and expanded the audience for documentaries,” he said. “And with Imax’s technology, screens and immersive experience, it just feels like a perfect storm to create these really immersive, incredible, fun experiences within documentaries.”