How Did Christopher Nolan Make Everyone Care About IMAX?
Let’s be honest. Most of us have never cared what kind of cinema screen we’re sitting in.
If the movie starts on time, the popcorn is decent and the AC works, that’s usually enough. We book the nearest show, find our seats and spend the next three hours watching the film. Very few people have ever chosen a movie based on the projector inside the theatre.
That’s why the buzz around Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey feels so unusual. Instead of talking only about the story or the performances, people across the world have been obsessing over one thing: IMAX 70mm.
Social media is filled with posts explaining which theatres have it, why it looks different, and whether it’s worth travelling to another city or even another country just to watch the film.
Some fans planned trips months in advance. Others queued online the moment tickets went on sale. A few tickets even ended up being resold for more than $1,000.
For a technology that has existed for decades, why has everyone suddenly started talking about it now?
The answer begins with understanding what IMAX 70mm actually is. Most films today are shot using digital cameras and projected digitally in theatres. IMAX 70mm is very different. It uses 70mm film, which is physically much larger than the film formats used in traditional cinemas.
A larger film frame captures far more visual information, resulting in sharper images, richer colours and a level of detail that becomes especially noticeable on giant screens. On top of that, IMAX’s film runs horizontally through the camera instead of vertically, exposing a much larger image area for every frame. The result is an image that feels bigger, brighter and more immersive than what most audiences are used to.
That doesn’t mean every IMAX theatre is the same. This is where many people get confused. Thousands of theatres around the world use the IMAX brand, but only a tiny number can actually project 70mm IMAX film.
Most modern IMAX theatres use digital projectors. They still offer a larger screen, better sound and a premium experience compared to regular cinemas, but they’re not the same as watching a film on an original IMAX 70mm projector.
Did You Know?
Older IMAX film cameras sounded almost like lawn mowers, making them impractical for dialogue-heavy scenes. Christopher Nolan pushed IMAX to solve that problem, leading to the development of the quieter Keighley 65mm IMAX film camera. As a result, The Odyssey became the first feature film shot entirely on IMAX film cameras.
Most people would’ve never bothered learning the difference. Christopher Nolan is probably the biggest reason they do today.
Unlike most directors, Nolan has never treated IMAX as just another screening option. Since The Dark Knight, he has pushed studios and exhibitors to embrace the format. With Interstellar, Dunkirk, Tenet and Oppenheimer, he kept expanding the amount of footage shot using IMAX cameras. For The Odyssey, he went a step further. The film became the first feature ever shot entirely using IMAX film cameras.
That wasn’t easy because IMAX film cameras have traditionally been enormous, noisy and difficult to use, especially when recording dialogue. To make The Odyssey possible, Nolan and IMAX worked together to develop a new generation of cameras that could overcome those limitations. In other words, the technology itself evolved because one filmmaker insisted on pushing it further. That is an unusual relationship between a director and a technology company.
The result speaks for itself. The Odyssey has become the biggest IMAX success in the company’s history. During its opening weekend, IMAX generated about $52 million in global ticket sales, making it the company’s biggest global opening ever in comparable markets, Christopher Nolan’s biggest IMAX opening and Universal Pictures’ biggest IMAX release. Even more remarkable is that IMAX contributed roughly 20% of the film’s worldwide opening weekend box office.
Think about that number for a moment.
IMAX screens make up only a small fraction of cinema screens worldwide, yet they generated one-fifth of the movie’s global revenue during its opening weekend. That tells us audiences weren’t simply choosing the nearest theatre. A significant number were actively choosing the premium experience, even if it meant paying higher prices.
Fun Fact: The Odyssey was shot on over 2.1 million feet of IMAX film. If laid end to end, the film would stretch about 640 km, roughly the distance from Mumbai to Goa by road.
Scarcity made that demand even stronger.
Only 41 theatres across the world were capable of projecting The Odyssey in true IMAX 70mm film, and 26 of those are located in the United States. For millions of moviegoers, watching the film exactly as Nolan intended simply wasn’t possible in their own city. That limited supply created something cinemas rarely experience: exclusivity.
Fans travelled hundreds of kilometres to reach one of those theatres. Hotels and flights were planned around movie timings. Online communities shared detailed guides on the best seats and the best locations. Some tickets appeared on resale platforms at extraordinary prices, with reports of listings crossing $1,000. That’s the kind of behaviour we usually associate with Coldplay concerts, Taylor Swift tours or the IPL final, not a movie screening.
It also highlights a basic economic principle. Scarcity creates value. When only a handful of people can access a product, the experience itself becomes more desirable. Luxury brands have relied on this idea for decades. Surprisingly, cinema has now found a way to use the same strategy.
This isn’t just Christopher Nolan’s success story. It’s also IMAX’s.
For years, IMAX positioned itself as a premium movie format. But premium only works if people believe the upgrade is worth paying for. Nolan helped create that belief. Every blockbuster he released reminded audiences that some films are simply better on the biggest screen available. Over time, he trained moviegoers to think differently. Instead of asking, “Should I watch this film?”, they began asking, “Where should I watch it?”
This subtle shift changed the economics of the entire industry.
Earlier, theatres mainly competed against one another. Today, their biggest competitor is your living room. Streaming platforms like Netflix, Prime Video and Disney+ have made entertainment cheaper, more convenient and available whenever you want. If audiences can watch thousands of films from their sofa, cinemas need a much stronger reason to convince people to step outside.
That’s exactly why premium cinema has become one of the industry’s biggest bets.
Around the world, exhibitors are investing in IMAX, Dolby Cinema, 4DX, ScreenX, laser projection and luxury recliner auditoriums. None of these technologies make the movie itself better. They make the experience of watching it better. The business model has shifted from selling access to a film to selling an experience that streaming simply cannot replicate.
India is moving in the same direction. PVR INOX has steadily expanded its premium formats, adding more IMAX, IMAX with Laser, 4DX, ScreenX and ICE theatres across major cities. Premium tickets often cost several times more than regular ones, yet audiences continue to fill those seats for the biggest releases.
India has over 30 IMAX theatres, but none of its commercial theatres can screen movies in true IMAX 70mm. The country’s only operational IMAX 15/70 projector is at Gujarat Science City in Ahmedabad, where it is used for educational documentaries rather than commercial films.
That means Indian audiences watched The Odyssey through digital IMAX systems rather than the original film format that generated so much global excitement.
Yet the bigger trend remains the same. Indian moviegoers are increasingly willing to pay for experiences that feel special. We already see this outside cinema. People spend thousands of rupees for concerts, sporting events and immersive entertainment because they offer something impossible to recreate at home. Premium cinema is slowly entering that category.
That could have long-term implications for exhibitors. Instead of building more standard screens, cinema chains may increasingly invest in fewer but higher-value auditoriums that generate better revenue per seat.
Perhaps the biggest lesson from The Odyssey has nothing to do with Greek mythology.
It has shown that in the streaming era, the movie is no longer the only thing audiences are paying for. The experience of watching it has become just as important. Christopher Nolan didn’t invent IMAX, and he certainly didn’t invent 70mm film. But he has done something arguably more valuable. He convinced millions of people to care about a cinema screen.
For an industry that has spent years worrying about whether people would stop coming to theatres altogether, that may be one of the most important business stories of the decade.
While researching this story, we stumbled upon a few IMAX and The Odyssey memes that were too good not to share. Here are some of our favourites.
That’s it from us this week. If you enjoyed this, forward it to someone who still thinks IMAX is just a bigger screen.
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