Not everyone gets a front-row seat to history.
This weekend, Christopher Nolan’s “The Odyssey” arrives in theaters nationwide. The sprawling adaptation of Homer’s epic is the first-ever movie shot entirely on Imax film cameras. And over the past month, everyone from Matt Damon and Anne Hathaway to Nolan himself have hammered home the same message: “The Odyssey” deserves to be seen in a true Imax 70mm presentation — the way it was intended to be experienced.But there’s a catch. Only 25 theaters in the U.S. are equipped to project “The Odyssey” in true Imax 70mm film, prompting moviegoers to embark on cross-country road trips (and even delaying pregnancies) to experience the cinematic milestone.It doesn’t take a business degree to understand the law of supply and demand, but at “The Odyssey” premiere Tuesday night, Imax CEO Richard Gelfond explained why adding more Imax 70mm screens isn’t that simple. (The interview clip, as of Friday afternoon, has over 7.5 million views on X).
“We’re sold out in some theaters into the fifth week already,” Gelfond told Variety. “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.”
