The Odyssey IMAX 70mm screening prep causes confusion as projectors loaded into theaters spark new fan outrage — as some dub Christopher Nolan's filming choice 'anti-art'

It's no secret that the new Christopher Nolan movie, The Odyssey,is the first full-length movie to be filmed solely with 1570 IMAX cameras, but it might be less known that fewer than 40 movie theaters worldwide can actually play the original film when it releases on July 17.

Most standard cinemas will show only a fraction of the shots Nolan actually filmed, due to common screen and projector ratios. If you're not following, check out the TikTok below for a full visual explanation:

With only 26 theaters in the US and just three in the UK able to do so, demand is incredibly high. If I wanted to see The Odyssey at the BFI IMAX, for example, I'd currently have to wait until late August — at the earliest — for a 70mm screening that isn't sold out.

Thanks to Variety, we've already heard from IMAX CEO Richard Gelfond about whether the spike in demand will prompt the opening of new IMAX theaters.

"There's certainly more demand; the problem is they haven't made new IMAX film projectors in about 50 years," he explained. "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."

But as an IMAX projector has been spotted being wheeled into the TCL Chinese Theatre in Los Angeles, a new wave of confusion has sparked over doubts about Gelfond's claims being true. Some fans are even going a step further, claiming that Nolan's decision to shoot in a format that few people can access is "anti-art."

'Something has to be done about this'

Let's start by debunking the above video. If we're to believe Gelfond at face value (and there's no reason why we shouldn't), the subtitle of "new" seen in this video is actually misleading.

It's more likely that the projector is new to the theater rather than the world, having been built a long time before The Odyssey was even an idea (for Nolan, anyway).

But it's this lack of availability and resources that's causing the wider problem. This video of The Odyssey film being loaded into an IMAX 70mm projector goes some of the way to explaining why the format isn't more accessible.

The 172 minute runtime takes 2.1 million feet of film, weighing around 846 lbs (that's 60 stone for my fellow Brits).

There's no doubting that The Odyssey will be a magnificent epic regardless of what format you watch it in, but the IMAX 70mm screening divide is already causing derision amongst fans.

"Filming in a format that only ~40 cinemas across the world can fully display is anti-art," one fan wrote on X/Twitter, with a second agreeing, "Actually it’s anti art that only 40 theaters can show it."

A third weighed in, "I know it's low on the list of our priorities as a society right now, but something has to be done about this."

"That is beyond disgusting. it's already hard enough for a lot of people to access cinemas, why make it an even more elitist experience?" a fourth responded.

Will this demand and outrage actually lead to a resurgence in 70mm projectors and more investment in physical, IMAX cinema? The cynic in me says that I doubt it.

With cinema as an industry in such a decline, it still feels like there's too much risk vs. reward to throw money behind an analog film revival like this. However, if Nolan's decision becomes a watershed moment adopted by other heavy hitters in the industry, we could be having a completely different conversation.