Surprising reality behind The Odyssey's 'true way to watch' only 41 cinemas worldwide can show

The Odyssey is undeniably the cinema event of the summer, having earned over $300,000,000 in the week since its release.

This can be attributed to a number of factors, whether it be Christopher Nolan’s undeniable prestige as a director, the all-star celebrity cast (which is arguably the most star-studded of any film ever made), or the simple fact that it’s an iconic story.

One major factor however has been the fact that The Odyssey is one of the first feature films to be filmed entirely in IMAX. The Nolan epic is still an incredible watch outside of IMAX, with several laser screens capable of showing the film without cutting off the corners due to the huge aspect ratio.

Many however consider watching the film in IMAX 70mm to be the ‘true’ way to watch it in Nolan’s intended vision, and as a result IMAX 70mm screenings are sold out for weeks across the world.

Just 41 cinemas in the world are capable of showing the film like this, with only three in the UK able to screen 70mm IMAX.

One of these, the Vue in Manchester, gave exclusive access to LADbible to look at the surprising process and reality of the 70mm IMAX, and it truly makes you understand why so few cinemas in the world are capable of showing it.

The 70mm IMAX The Odyssey film reels are over 6 feet in diameter and weigh almost 300 kilograms

The above pictures show the pure scale of the massive film reels required to show The Odyssey in this format, which some estimates say include 11 miles of film and weighs almost 300 kilograms.

The room where this was housed was huge, with cooling fans aimed at the film itself from two different angles, and IMAX screens can be as high as eight stories tall.

This can cost huge amount to print, roughly $36,000 for a 2.5 hour film, with The Odyssey clocking in at just under three hours and requiring specialised forklifts to transport them.

Vue have had people come from all over to watch The Odyssey on IMAX 70mm, with fans travelling Italy, Germany, Sweden, Denmark, Ireland, and Spain to visit Manchester and watch the film in this format and the scale shows that this may be worth it.

The cinema’s 70mm screenings are, unless you want to see the movie in the front two rows, sold out for weeks in advance, with more screenings set to be announced in the coming days.

Down in London, where two screens are showing the film in this format, tickets are sold out all the way through until September.

Unique cameras used for the first time on The Odyssey paid homage to influential figure in rise of IMAX

The Odyssey used a mix of cameras, with more traditional IMAX cameras combined with a brand new ‘Keighley camera’.

This is named after David Keighley, a longtime Chief Quality Officer of IMAX and a close friend of Christopher Nolan.

Nolan dedicated the film to Keighley, saying: “Our entire industry owes David a massive debt. I miss him as a collaborator and as a friend.

“David passed sadly right after we finished critical photography on this film after we finished his very important work of printing all our days and approving all of the photography. I’m thrilled that he was able to finish that.”

The camera was created in part by David and his wife Patricia after the pair came up with a solution to the problem of IMAX cameras being too loud to capture audio effectively.

The Odyssey is available to watch in cinemas now.