Nolan fans travel globally to 41 rare 1570 IMAX cinemas
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- IMAX Melbourne is one of only 41 cinemas globally that can project IMAX 1570 film, and the sole southern hemisphere venue with a 1570 reel of The Odyssey — a single reel that runs more than 17km and weighs 240kg.
- The Odyssey is the first feature ever shot entirely on 1570 cameras, a notoriously heavy 180kg format requiring film stock changes every three minutes; Nolan worked with IMAX on a custom soundproofing "blimp" to record dialogue on 1570 for the first time.
- IMAX Melbourne sold more than 17,000 tickets in the first 24 hours when they went on sale a year before release, has since passed 30,000, and is now the cinema's eighth biggest film of all time before opening.
- Fans from Turkey, Singapore, Malaysia, Germany, and Los Angeles have built holidays around the screening; German couple Christian Wächter and Romy Demeter are flying to Melbourne specifically to see it twice on the world's largest 1.43:1 screen (32m wide by 23m high).
- The global count of 1570-capable cinemas has risen from 30 to 41 since Nolan's Oppenheimer three years ago, and older Nolan 1570 screenings like Interstellar (2014) now sell out more than at original release.
- General manager Jeremy Fee says audiences — particularly younger viewers — have shown unprecedented awareness of film formats, with format considerations now "leading the discussion" of where to seek out The Odyssey.
Why it matters: IMAX Melbourne's 30,000-plus presold tickets, drawn from fans booking international trips a year in advance, show Nolan has converted a niche 1570 format into a must-experience cultural event. The 1570-capable cinema count growing from 30 to 41 since Oppenheimer signals a small but real film-format revival driven by auteur demand.
