LOS ANGELES, CA.- On October 1, the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County will open its first ever large screen 3D theater, the first theater experience at NHM in more than a decade. The 100-seat “NHM 3D Theater” will provide visitors with the opportunity to immerse themselves into a sensory experience and explore new worlds through cinema.

“We’re thrilled to add the new 3D theater to the range of visitor experiences for our guests at the Natural History Museum in Exposition Park,” shared Dr. Lori Bettison-Varga, President and Director of NHM. “Showing powerful and entertaining films, to complement our rich range of exhibitions and programs, delivers on our mission to “inspire wonder, discovery and responsibility for the natural and cultural worlds. We think this BBC film Oceans, and future films in this new theater, will appeal to the broadest audience of Los Angeles— school children, families and adults of all ages."

For the inaugural show, NHM will present the Los Angeles debut of Oceans 3D: Our Blue Planet, a coproduction by BBC Earth and OceanX Media, narrated by Kate Winslet. Oceans 3D tells the untold stories of the sea's most astonishing creatures and takes the audience on a global odyssey to discover the largest and least explored habitat on Earth, with the help of new ocean science and technology. Viewers will swim alongside leaping dolphins, sharks, whales, and sea turtles, dive around coral reef ecosystems and journey to the depths of the ocean floor and encounter some of the most extreme and exotic animals ever discovered.

Featuring OceanX’s research vessel, the Alucia, the film is directed by Mark Brownlow (Planet Earth: Blue Planet II, Tiny Giants) and Rachel Butler (Great Barrier Reef) and is distributed worldwide to museum cinemas by BBC Earth and Chicago-based Giant Screen Films & D3D Cinema. Microsoft, a sponsor of the film, is providing educational resources tailored around the messages and themes portrayed in Oceans 3D: Our Blue Planet.

Once visitors emerge from the theater and enter the Museum’s exhibition halls, they will marvel at the skeletons of ancient marine creatures swimming overhead in Age of Mammals and the 63-foot fin whale specimen diving in the shimmering Otis Booth Pavilion.

The price of admission to the NHM 3D Theater is $5, when booked online in advance, or $6 when purchased onsite, and free for museum members.