Box office phenomenon The Odyssey by Christopher Nolan has been a powerful promotional tool for IMAX cinema technology, but it has also provoked a backlash online about its perceived elitism.Nolan became the first director ever to use the highest resolution 70-milimeter IMAX film with a specially designed camera to shoot the whole of his epic movie about ancient Greek hero Odysseus.
With demand high for the best possible viewing experience, some IMAX cinemas have been booked out weeks in advance, with screen owners putting on extra showings in late or even midnight slots.
The catch? Only 41 cinemas worldwide can actually project Nolan's special 70mm film print, while tickets for the standard digital IMAX screens are premium-priced at usually double the cost of a regular cinema place.
Over half of all 70mm IMAX theatres are in the United States, while a country as large as India, with its population of around 1.5 billion, doesn't have a single one.
"Creating a film in a format that most people can never experience as intended is not how an auteur of world cinema should work," journalist Harsh Tiwari argued in The Print, an Indian online news and opinion site.
