MOVIES: South Point adds another XD screen

If you think you're seeing double at Cinemark's South Point 16 multiplex, you're right.

Starting this weekend, with the arrival of "Iron Man 2" — and the summer movie season — the South Point adds a second XD "Extreme Digital" screen, offering two auditoriums featuring Cinemark's premium presentation.

Conceived as an alternative to other theaters' digital "IMAX Experience" (including several local auditoriums operated by Cinemark rival Regal Cinemas), Cinemark's XD (which stands for Extreme Digital Cinema) features giant screens, wrap-around sound and, of course, digital projection — in both 2-D and 3-D releases.

And if you enjoy seeing movies at local casinos, you have South Point owner Michael Gaughan to thank for that; he's the guy who, in 1986, decided he wanted to show movies at his new casino and built a twin theater inside the Gold Coast (which is now a Boyd property — and hasn't had a theater in years). That was the start of Las Vegas' casino-cinema connection — and now, if casinos didn't have movie theaters, Southern Nevada would hardly have any theaters at all.