People are packing theaters to see The Odyssey this summer. And no theater in Florida is more in demand than Fort Lauderdale’s Autonation IMAX theater at the Museum of Discovery and Science.
The venue is home to a 70mm IMAX screen, one of just 25 in the country and the only one in Florida to use the high quality, giant-format film technology.
The movie is billed as the first narrative film shot entirely on IMAX cameras, meaning the museum's theater is one of the only places to watch the movie as its celebrated director, Christopher Nolan — of Oppenheimer and Interstellar fame — intended.
A total of 35,822 tickets have been sold for showing of the film so far. That's the equivalent of 136 consecutive completely sold-out shows says Joe Cox, the museum’s president and CEO.
"This is one of those rare cinematic format events that has literally turned our AutoNation IMAX theater at the Museum of Discovery and Science into a regional cultural destination," he said.
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Cox says he's met people who drove down from Atlanta or flew in from Puerto Rico just to see the film in its optimal format.
The majority of movie theaters today use digital projectors. A 70mm projector not only uses an actual film print, which cinephiles argue brings more sharpness and character to the images, but one that is much larger than the standard 35mm print — bringing a higher resolution to the screen.
Additionally, a full-size IMAX screen like the 65-foot-high screen in Fort Lauderdale is not only larger than IMAX screens found in multiplexes but its ratio is also different — being slightly taller — meaning that more of the frame is shown, as the director originally intended.
Tickets are sold out through mid-August — but Cox says they’ll be adding more shows in waves, and he’s working with the studio to keep showing The Odyssey as long as possible.
