New IMAX screens may be headed to an AMC theater near you

Get your popcorn ready.

AMC Theaters and IMAX on Wednesday said they would add 25 additional IMAX screens across the U.S. by 2019.

The rollout, which will begin this year, will add additional IMAX theaters at AMC locations in New York, Los Angeles, Houston and other markets. The move will bring the total number of AMC's IMAX theaters to 185.

The AMC deal isn't the only one IMAX is making. The movie format, which features bigger screens and enhanced audio, will also expand in Europe. Separately, IMAX announced a partnership on Wednesday with Cineworld Group to open five new theaters in Europe. The new theaters raises Cineworld's total IMAX commitment in Europe to 40 theaters continent-wide.

IMAX and other large screen, premium formats such as Dolby Cinema, ETX, RPX and RealD 3D have seen a rise in popularity in recent years, fueled by a push by theaters and Hollywood to give consumers a reason to go the movies as opposed to waiting for a release to come out on Blu-Ray or be available to streaming on services like Netflix, Amazon Prime Video or HBO Now.

Many of 2016's most popular films have been released in IMAX's larger-screened format, including Fox's Deadpool, Warner Bros.' Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, Marvel's Captain America: Civil War and the recently released Finding Dory from Disney and Pixar.

The moves have been paying off, with 2015's box office pulling in a record of over $11 billion domestically according to IMDB's Box Office Mojo. The 2016 box office is currently at just over $5.1 billion, up 1.1% from this time last year.  IMAX said its box office was up 87% in the first quarter of the year, helped by releases such as Batman and Deadpool,

More big features are expected to be available in IMAX when they debut later this year including Sony's Ghostbusters next month, Warner Bros.' Suicide Squad in August, Marvel's Doctor Strange in November and Disney's newest Star Wars film, Rogue One in December.

Follow Eli Blumenthal on Twitter @eliblumenthal