North Carolina misses Nolan's ultimate "Odyssey" experience
Add Axios as your preferred source to
see more of our stories on Google.
"The Odyssey" director Christopher Nolan at a Mumbai IMAX screening. Photo: Aalok Soni/Getty Images for Universal Pictures
The purest form of Christopher Nolan's "The Odyssey" can only be seen in the 25 U.S. theaters equipped with 70mm IMAX screens — and none are in North Carolina.
The big picture: Movie theaters are enjoying their strongest run since COVID — driven in part by major film studios turning major releases into can't-miss events like Nolan's latest.
Context: Nolan's preferred presentation format can only be shown on 70mm IMAX screens, which offer the highest-quality image and sound from the original film.
- Nolan previously showed some of his films in 70mm — like "Oppenheimer" in 2023 — but "The Odyssey" was the first narrative film to be shot entirely using IMAX cameras.
Nolan fans are going bonkers over it.
- The film earned $264.1 million globally at the box office opening weekend.
- $52 million of that came from IMAX showings, popping IMAX stock Monday morning, Yahoo Finance reported.
Reality check: Very few theaters worldwide can project 70mm IMAX film.
- There are 41 operating movie theaters equipped with IMAX 70mm screens, including 25 in the U.S. and eight in California alone.
- Variety reported that new IMAX projectors haven't been produced in 50 years. Retrofits aren't easy because some parts are obsolete, and because the complete manufacturing blueprint wasn't preserved after Hollywood transitioned to digital projection in the 2000s, sources told Variety.
- Still, the company installed 11 more 70mm IMAX projectors worldwide between "Oppenheimer" and "The Odyssey."
Zoom in: One of the biggest movie screens in North Carolina is inside downtown Raleigh's Marbles Kids Museum. Marbles' certified giant screen — yes, that's a real thing — is 70 feet wide and 54 feet tall.
- Marbles uses a digital Xenon projector, which plays "The Odyssey" in a 1.90:1 aspect radio, according to Welch Narron, vice president of facilities and technology. Nolan shot "The Odyssey" with an aspect ratio of 1.43:1.
Fun fact: The children's museum told Indy Week in 2011 that it wouldn't screen R-rated movies, and it didn't show "Oppenheimer" in 2023, according to Reddit.
- It is showing "The Odyssey," though, with several sell-outs already. Narron said in an email that it began showing R-rated films in 2024.
How it works: A standard film strips is 35mm. A 70mm print is physically larger, allowing for higher image resolution.
- IMAX screens also display a taller image, letting audiences see more of the frame.
- Normally, filmmakers will only film parts of their movie on IMAX since the cameras for it are bulky and expensive.
- "IMAX is the best film format that was ever invented. It's the gold standard and what any other technology has to match up to, but none have," Nolan said in a press release.
The bottom line: Don't worry — you can still check out "The Odyssey" at movie theaters. You just won't see the film *exactly* as Nolan intended.
Editor's note: This story has been updated with information from Marbles Kids Museum.