Why IMAX can't just build more projectors as The Odyssey can only be shown properly in 41 cinemas worldwide

After what felt like a long, long wait, The Odyssey has finally hit cinemas and has been met with near universal acclaim from everyone who’s gone to see it (so excluding Elon Musk’s whining).

The Christopher Nolan film has created a huge clamour to go and see it, pulling in $264 million in just its opening weekend with screenings across the world sold out for days and even weeks to come.

The Odyssey was a huge undertaking with a $250 million budget, and one of the most unique things about this movie is that it was shot entirely with IMAX 70mm film.

This requires specialised cameras in order to get the biggest picture on cinema screens possible and is considered the only ‘true’ way to watch The Odyssey as one of the first non-documentary films to entirely use IMAX 70mm.

Very few cinemas have the facilities to show this format properly though, with just 41 cinemas worldwide capable.

This means that, in many places, you need to travel hours to watch it how Nolan intended and, in some cases, can’t even do that because the screens are sold out weeks, or even months, in advance.

The solution of course then simply becomes ‘just make more screens that can show IMAX 70mm so I can watch Matt Damon getting stranded again in beautiful 70mm glory’.

IMAX CEO Richard Gelfond spoke to Variety though and explained that it just isn’t that simple.

Gelfond said: “We’re sold out in some theaters into the fifth week already.

“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.”

This is due in part to the fact that many of the parts made ‘no longer exist’, and the company no longer has a complete manufacturing blueprint from when the cameras were created.

There are also far fewer engineers who understand how the cameras even work to try and retrofit them due the transition from film cameras to digital cameras in the early 2000s.

The CEO added: “We build new projectors every day, but film projectors using this film — it’s just not practical.

“Can all 2,000 of our theatres be film projectors? No. There’s just not that many around. But I think we can continue to grow it.”

If there’s a way to make it work though it is clearly worth it going off reactions to The Odyssey, with fans comparing just how much of the screen is cut off when you watch it on a regular screen instead of an IMAX one.

One fan on Reddit responded to the incredible pictures of the film at full size, commenting: “I REALLY wish 70mm was the standard in every IMAX theater. My local AMC doesn’t even have Laser. These pictures are breathtaking and I hope to experience movies like this one day.”

Another clearly had the same thought we all did of ‘why can’t they just make more’, saying: “Honestly for the amount of hype IMAX should really get going and get more theater owners to build out 70mm.

“Like here in Germany I‘d have to drive for 4 hours to Brussels because apparently we only get digital IMAX…”

The Odyssey is available to watch in cinemas now.