Two years ago, Oppenheimer took IMAX by storm. It might have been bested by the top half of theBarbenheimer double bill, but you would never know it if you looked solely at its performance on IMAX 70mm screens, where it was near-constantly sold out. The demand to see Christopher Nolan’s latest (and judging by its Oscar run, greatest) film in the best possible format wildly outstripped the format’s availability. Though there are only 30 IMAX 70mm locations worldwide,Oppenheimer raked in $17 million on those screens in its first four weeks alone.
The Odyssey Is Shaping Up To Be A True Event Movie
Two years later, interest in the format is even more rabid. This week, IMAX 70mm tickets for Nolan’s nextmovie, The Odyssey, went up for presale andimmediately sold out. The forthcoming adaptation of Homer’s epic poem won’t be out for another year; in fact, it’s still filming. But unless IMAX significantly expands its 70mm offerings, there will be no seats available in the ideal format, probably not for its entire run.
If you’re Christopher Nolan, that’s a good problem to have. The movie carries a$250 million production budget— Nolan’s biggest ever — and ticket sales will need to be on par or beyond Oppenheimer for it to make much profit. Given how much Oppenheimer made in the format, The Odyssey is already on its way to recouping its budget. It’s a rising tide that lifts all boats, though. By selling tickets this early — by making them a hot commodity — Nolan is fanning interest in The Odyssey as an event. In the post-COVID streaming era, Hollywood and movie theaters desperately need films like this.
But IMAX Is Letting It Down
The problem is that IMAX hasn’t kept pace with demand. When Oppenheimer opened, there were 30 theaters around the world equipped to show 70mm IMAX films. Somehow, despite Oppenheimer’s success, The Odyssey is set to play on less, with the official IMAX website offering tickets for showtimes in just 26 locations.
I don’t know what’s happening behind-the-scenes at IMAX, but it’s bizarre that the company had a massive success with Oppenheimer, and another shot in the spotlight thanks to Sinners’ sustained performance earlier this year, and hasn’t announced plans to massively expand its 70mm offerings.
Collider interviewed IMAX CEO Richard Gelfond and CCO Giovanni Dolci this year during the Cannes Film Festival, and the two execs expressed a strange hesitancy about that kind of expansion. Interviewer Steve Weintraub asked the same questions I’m asking here.
“Right now, there are only very select theaters that can play IMAX film. Is there any talk about opening more theaters that can do IMAX film?” he asked. To which Gelfond responded that there are technological hurdles because the existing projectors are 50 years old, and they need to be retrofitted for modern use. “We’re trying, but there’s not going to be a quantum leap. They just don’t exist anymore,” he said. So, Weintraub asks, how many more locations can we expect? Like “one or two, or maybe five?” To which Gelfond responds, “somewhere in that range.”
Dolci explains that interest in the format has seen a huge jump since Oppenheimer, with exhibitors asking how they could put a film system into an existing location. “So, something has clearly happened. It’s happening.”
This prompts Weintraub to say what anyone would naturally say: “You might have to start actually inventing film projectors.” And, at least in the published interview, Gelfond and Dolci saynothingin response.
IMAX Needs To Evolve For Modern Audiences
I don’t get it. There is demonstrated interest, both from exhibitors and the public, in seeing movies in IMAX 70mm, and the official response from IMAX is, ‘No can do, the tech is too old.’ Nolan is currently shooting The Odyssey, in its entirety, with IMAX film cameras. It is the first film ever to be shot entirely with IMAX film. That required multiple leaps forward: making the camera lighter and quieter than previous iterations. But when it comes to fitting theaters so they can actually play the movie in that format, it’s simply too difficult to even try? I just don’t buy it.
The demand isn’t going away. Filmmakers like Nolan, Ryan Coogler, James Cameron, Denis Villeneuve, Greta Gerwig, and Jordan Peele want to show their movies in IMAX, in many cases, in IMAX 70mm. At a certain point, I can’t imagine powerful filmmakers like Nolan and Cameron accepting IMAX’s stance. The answer that if you don’t already have tickets to see The Odyssey in 70mm IMAX you probably won’t be able to — despite the fact that the movie is a year away — just isn’t good enough.
