Christopher Nolan has spent years convincing audiences that some films simply need to be seen on the biggest screen possible. However, there's a slight issue there, because with The Odyssey, he may have been a little too successful. The filmmaker’s latest epic is the first movie shot entirely using IMAX film cameras, and audiences have responded by hunting down the rarest possible version of it, but the problem is that there simply are not enough projectors to go around.
IMAX CEO Richard Gelfond has admitted to Variety that demand for The Odyssey in IMAX 70mm is outstripping supply, with some cinemas already sold out into the film’s fifth week. “There’s certainly more demand,” Gelfond said. “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.”
Why IMAX Can’t Simply Build More 70mm Projectors
Only 25 cinemas in the United States can currently show The Odyssey in true IMAX 70mm, with 41 locations available worldwide, which is still an improvement over Oppenheimer, which played in the format at 30 venues. The issue is that IMAX has to find these projectors. In fact, ahead of The Odyssey, IMAX spent more than a year tracking down abandoned and broken projectors, salvaging parts and rebuilding as many systems as possible, while the company also trained 60 new projectionists specifically to handle the complicated format.
The difficulty is that many of the required parts are no longer manufactured, while the original design files were not properly preserved because, well, who knew there would be this demand and this resurgence? Decades of Hollywood moving towards digital projection also meant much of the specialist knowledge needed to build and repair film projectors disappeared, which is something of a tragedy for traditional filmmakers. “We build new projectors every day, but film projectors using this film — it’s just not practical,” Gelfond explained. “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.”
Even producing more projectors would not completely solve the problem, because true IMAX 70mm presentations require enormous 1.43:1 screens and specially designed auditoriums, which are costly for cinema chains to construct for specialist presentations. After all, there's probably not going to be a huge demand to play, for example, Coyote vs. Acme or The Drama on those big screens. For now, we'll need to settle for regular old IMAX.
If you're curious about how Nolan's epic reimagines Homer's classic, check out our breakdown of how 'The Odyssey' changed the original story. And for a look at how the film is dominating the box office, see how it sailed past $264 million.
The Odyssey is now playing in theaters.
