Why Aren’t There More Imax 70mm Screens for ‘The Odyssey’? ‘It’s Not Practical,’ Company Says
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- Imax has only 25 U.S. theaters capable of projecting Christopher Nolan's "The Odyssey" in true 70mm, with some locations already sold out five weeks ahead.
- Richard Gelfond said at the premiere that no new Imax film projectors have been manufactured in roughly 50 years — most replacement parts no longer exist because the original design files from that era were never properly maintained.
- The expansion effort grew Imax's global 70mm footprint from 30 screens for "Oppenheimer" to 41 for "The Odyssey," a net gain of 11 after one projector was lost during the process.
- Imax spent over a year tracking down broken, abandoned, and forgotten projectors to salvage parts and trained 60 new projectionists from scratch for the rollout.
- The institutional knowledge gap traces to Hollywood's late-2000s shift from film to digital projection, which ended manufacturing of film projectors and their replacement components.
- Exhibitors aren't building enough auditoriums large enough to house Imax's 1.43:1 screens due to high construction costs — creating a second bottleneck even if more 70mm projectors could somehow be manufactured.
- Moviegoers are traveling cross-country — and reportedly delaying pregnancies — to experience "The Odyssey" in true Imax 70mm, with Gelfond's premiere-week interview drawing over 7.5 million views on X.
Why it matters: Imax spent over a year growing from 30 to 41 global 70mm screens for 'The Odyssey' — salvaging parts from abandoned projectors and training 60 new projectionists. The 11-screen expansion shows the format is rebounding after 'Oppenheimer,' but its survival now depends on a handful of auteur directors (Nolan, Villeneuve) keeping demand alive while exhibitors decide whether to build the 1.43:1 auditoriums the format requires.
