Nolan's The Odyssey rekindles demand for IMAX 70mm exhibition

moviesJul 21, 202649970

Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey, shot entirely on IMAX 70mm with a newly invented camera, has driven intense demand that forced Los Angeles theaters to resurrect near‑lost 70mm film processing and projection workflows. When tickets first went on sale a year ago nearly every IMAX 70mm screening sold out instantly; a later ticket drop crashed the AMC Theatres app and underscored scarcity for a format that only 41 theaters worldwide can run. The Odyssey is playing in 25 U.S. theaters, eight in California, and FotoKem, described in reporting as the last motion picture lab still making 70mm prints, has been central to preparing prints. Veteran IMAX projectionist Taylor Umphenour is overseeing upgrades at local venues, including a three‑week construction of a new projection and sound booth at the historic Alex Theatre in Glendale so it could host the film as a first‑run release for the first time since Terminator 2 in 1991. Umphenour’s company Film Leader Co. is supervising restorations and technical operations across multiple houses, while Universal Cinema AMC at CityWalk Hollywood is one of the Los Angeles sites showing the format. The concentrated effort has revived specialist projection skills and physical lab work that most cinemas abandoned after the industry’s digital shift, producing both ticket scarcity and a short‑term renewal of exhibition infrastructure to meet Nolan’s analog specifications.

Culture Crave 🍿

@culturecrave.co

Christopher Nolan confirms 'The Prestige' will be re-released in 70mm for its 20th anniversary 🎞️ • The film is being blown up to the format • In theaters January 2027

27012h ago

Jack1

I’d rather see it in InfinityVision, thanks

Quoting this

mae (~ludicolo @ artfight)6

i will be seated unfortunately the prestige is fucking awesome

SMD3

fuck i'm gonna have to see this in the cinema again also what the fuck do you mean i saw this two decades ago

MadameNostalgic✨Tanya3

Oh. My. God. *screaming, crying, throwing up*

👑 TheKWCBlog 👑2

Which knot did you tie?

it's still free range2

And I will be present and accounted for because this mfer was CINEMA. I remember seeing this in theaters and being shook when the trick was revealed 😭

Quedesenholegal2

Um dos meus favoritos dirigidos pelo homem que não sabe sonhar.

FromTweets2Skeets2

One of my favorite Nolan films. His foot was in THE bag.

Karen K. Ho

@karenho.bsky.social

"To his mother’s bafflement, Nickolas Hogan and a group of his friends drove 12 hours from Brookings, S.D., to see the movie in Regina, Saskatchewan." (Gift link) www.nytimes.com/2026/07/20/m...

7313h ago

c0nc0rdance

@c0nc0rdance.bsky.social

Fortunately, they cast David Bowie as Nikola Tesla in Christopher Nolan's "The Prestige" (2006), because Bowie (an immortal space alien) made these scenes possible for real; which was a big savings on the special effects budget.

8512h ago

Paris Marx

@parismarx.com

funny to me that when we moved to widescreen the argument was like “look at all the extra you can see on the sides of the frame” and now all the imax 70mm promo is like “look at everything you can see on top and bottom” as it moves back closer to the aspect ratio we had before

769h ago

Paris Marx22

that said, loved the odyssey, can’t wait to go again

Henrik Johansen 🇩🇰1

Bet it would have looked great on my old Sony Triniton CRT.

Peter Jeffe1

I had no idea imax is 1.43:1, that's almost back to where it all started!

Sean T. Collins

@seantcollins.com

Stepping out of the "Is Wario a libertarian"–type debates over whether or not 2026 Christopher Nolan is a good director by saying "he's never been my favorite but I quite liked this and Oppenheimer" shows you how a lot of Odyssey criticism is just ppl publicly having their Nolan feelings, pro & con.

6712h ago

Sean T. Collins31

Which I get. If I hadn't cared for Oppenheimer I too would have gone on a multi-post "and ANOTHER thing about this FUCKING guy" rant

Reebin Nibs1

It’s been really fun seeing the tedious “he ripped off Paprika” people I know come out of the woodwork by liking every two-star review on Letterboxd they can find while also seemingly not yet seeing the movie themselves.

Nicholas Slayton

@nslayton.bsky.social

THE ODYSSEY in 70mm IMAX. Amazing. The "reveal" doesn't hit as hard on the 2nd viewing but the entire first act is so much stronger on rewatch. Damon's performance really lands. The visuals on 70mm imax are wild. The Hades sequence might be the standout of the movie.

468h ago

Nicholas Slayton40

After the 2nd viewing I am convinced that Pattinson needs to be the next Bond Villain. Right mix of class and smarm and evil

Laura Lee2

Ok. Tomorrow first thing on my to do list is find which places I can see it 70mm IMAX, and buy tickets. I haven’t seen it yet.

🩸💀 The Horror Guru 💀🩸

@thehorrorguru.bsky.social

I, for one, would love to see Christopher Nolan tackle a straight up horror movie. 👍

4212h ago

🩸💀 The Horror Guru 💀🩸14

I remember when Shutter Island was about to come out and there was a lot of discourse about Martin Scorsese "lowering himself" by making a genre picture, and it makes me happy to see that kind of sentiment appears to be a thing of the past.

Gonza Gonzalez1

I don't know why i thought of something akin to a zombie apocalypse movie. Maybe i thinking or War World Z

Joe Reid

@joereid.bsky.social

Finally saw THE ODYSSEY, now gobbling up as much as I can read about it. Started with @louispeitzman.bsky.social's piece on the role of Athena and Nolan's depiction (or lack thereof) of the gods. One of the most interesting aspects of the movie IMO www.vulture.com/article/the-...

2512h ago

Joe Reid6

Then @bilgeebiri.bsky.social's examination of the revelations in the film's final section and how Nolan was able to bring about something surprising in a story so well known. www.vulture.com/article/chri...

Thorne 🌸

@ens0.me

Time for the Odyssey. Doing 70mm in a non-IMAX theater, should be good. I was into Nolan when his newest film was Memento and he was an underground indie darling. I’m so proud of how far he’s come.

2421h ago

The Wall Street Journal

@wsj.com

The 8,000-pound horse would be hauled across a vast Moroccan beach by 250 actors. Christopher Nolan on how he pulled off one of his most epic scenes.

1813h ago

Metal Gear Solidarity

@mgearsolidarity.bsky.social

It's 7:53 am and I am in a 70mm IMAX seat so bad I can't even take a photo of the whole screen.

207h ago

Jordan Maison

@jordanmaison.com

I'm technically on vacation this week and been home all day occupying the youngest...but I managed to crank out nearly 2K words on Nolan's #TheOdyssey. Hope you enjoy them: www.cinelinx.com/movie-news/m...

1112h ago

Every Film Now

@everyfilmnow.bsky.social

‘THE ODYSSEY’ in IMAX 70mm. Photo by projectionist Taylor Umphenour. #TheOdyssey #IMAX

1011h ago

Matt

@gatesong.bsky.social

Just listened to an episode of Consider This on NPR in which Christopher Nolan walked through some of the themes in his Odyssey and can you even imagine?? the Golden Rule with theological underpinning??? How novel! *stares in Christian clergy*

But the other is a concept called xenia. I don't refer to it by that name in the film. In order to keep things simple, I refer to it by its other name, which is Zeus' law. And that's essentially the idea that when you meet a stranger, however humble that stranger might seem - you know, might - you might think that they're a beggar or whatever - they could be a god in disguise. And so you have to treat them the way you would want to be treated. So it's sort of what other cultures have referred to as the sort of golden rule - you know, treat others as you want to be treated - but with a theological underpinning.

1113h ago

The Rev. Keakealani3

Also, is it or is it not the most episcopal priest vibe to wash dishes to an NPR podcast? We are nothing if not predictable.

ad85.bsky.social2

Weird. Nolan was raised Catholic.

Matt1

I've simply never considered the possibility that how we treat the least of those around us might be how we're treating divinity

The Rev. Keakealani1

You know I really feel like I heard about a similar concept to this recently, but I can’t put my finger on it….

The A.V. Club

@avclub.com

Certain scenes in The Odyssey have "whet" Nolan's appetite for even more horror.

1313h ago

3 sources

cbsnews.comWhy Christopher Nolan shot "The Odyssey" entirely on IMAX film apnews.comWhat to know: 70mm? IMAX? Dolby? Christopher Nolan breaks down his favorite big screen formats latimes.comTo screen Christopher Nolan's 70mm 'Odyssey,' L.A. theaters raced to resurrect a nearly lost craft

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