Christopher Nolan’s “The Odyssey” marks the first major studio movie to be shot entirely on IMAX film cameras and, as a result, uses IMAX’s 1.43:1 aspect ratio throughout the film.
The trouble is, only a handful of cinemas are capable of showing that – 41 screens capable of the true IMAX 70mm presentation, and around 20 or so IMAX GT Dual Laser screens capable of showing that aspect ratio.
All other screens, from regular IMAX to Dolby Cinema to 70mm, show the film with different aspect ratios that cut off some of the image.
That has put screenings of the film in the original aspect ratio, especially those IMAX 70mm screenings, in high demand. Demand for the format has been high for years and is only expected to increase in the future, so the obvious question becomes – why aren’t there more of them?
Speaking with Variety about “The Odyssey” demand for IMAX 70mm screenings, IMAX CEO Richard Gelfond explained that adding more such screens is far from simple because parts required to build these specialised film projectors “simply no longer exist”. He says:
“We’re sold out in some theatres into the fifth week already. So there’s certainly more demand. The problem is they haven’t made new IMAX film projectors in about 50 years. So we retrofit them, rebuild them, and part of our strategy is to see how far we can take it. But certainly, demand-driven, I’d like to see more.
We build new projectors every day, but film projectors using this film – it’s not practical. So we’ve got to find them, and we’ve got to retrofit them and rebuild them which is what we did for ‘Odyssey’. Can all 2,000 of our theaters be film projectors? No. There’s just not that many around. But I think we can continue to grow it.”
The other issue is there aren’t many auditoriums in the world designed to accommodate IMAX 70mm screens, and building them is an expensive endeavour.
“The Odyssey” is expected to dominate IMAX screens for at least the next four weeks and could well run longer considering demand is so high. The film is currently on track for a $257 million worldwide opening weekend.
