Colorado’s 70mm IMAX screenings of ‘The Odyssey’ fail on opening weekend

Many moviegoers underwent their own odysseys to watch Christopher Nolan’s new film in its intended format last weekend.

“The Odyssey” is the first feature film shot entirely with 70mm IMAX cameras, and as Nolan describes it, that format is the only way to truly experience his adaptation of Homer’s epic. The problem is, only 41 movie theaters in the world have the IMAX film projector and 1.43:1 screen needed to execute Nolan’s vision — including just two theaters in Colorado.

Henry Hochberg traveled two hours by bus and train to catch the 11:40 a.m. showing at Denver’s Regal UA Colorado Center on Monday, July 20. At the theater, he met other groups who had come from out of state just to watch the movie, with one driving all the way from Texas. But when Hochberg got inside, he was told the showing would no longer be in 70mm IMAX as promised.

“They just kept saying, ‘We can’t show it,'” Hochberg says. “They said they didn’t know when it would be available again.”

The Denver theater’s projector has been down since Saturday morning, July 18, based on social media posts from disgruntled customers.

A similar story played out at Colorado’s second theater, Cinemark Carefree Circle in Colorado Springs. The theater got a new 70mm projector especially for “The Odyssey.” But on Saturday afternoon, the theater canceled a showing due to technical issues, according to social media posts.

The Colorado Springs theater quickly restored the equipment. Manager David Cerasuolo says “the defective equipment was replaced immediately,” and only one showing was canceled before the 70mm IMAX screenings resumed later on Saturday.

However, the outage at the Denver theater is ongoing as of Monday evening.

“Traveled hours to see a movie in 70mm IMAX,” an online review from Monday reads. “Was informed at the door that it was broken. From what I learned online, it was broken for days, yet no email or message was sent communicating this.”

“I waited over a year to see ‘The Odyssey’ in IMAX 70mm,” reads a review from Sunday. “They didn’t prepare for this massive event and their projector was not calibrated, according to staff, meaning I couldn’t watch the movie as God/Christopher Nolan intended.”

Regal did not respond to requests for comment. The theater location did not answer calls or emails from Westword.

The issue stems from the format. Film projection has become a dying art since most movie theaters switched to digital projection in the early 2010s, as digital projectors are cheaper and easier to maintain. No Colorado movie theaters were capable of showing the IMAX 70mm format back in 2023, when Nolan’s “Oppenheimer” came out.

New IMAX film projectors haven’t been made in around 50 years, and many of the parts needed to build them “no longer exist,” Variety reports. So the few projectors around must be retrofitted and rebuilt. And even then, very few engineers know how to properly work them. For “The Odyssey,” IMAX contracted 130 projectionists and required them to attend an intensive, weeklong training program, the Los Angeles Times reports.

Projector failures during screenings of “The Odyssey” were also reported in San Antonio, Texas.

Multiple moviegoers tell Westword that Regal UA Colorado Center did not warn them in advance that their 70mm IMAX showings were canceled. They only found out once they arrived and were offered two options: get a full refund, or watch the movie digitally and get a free ticket to a regular non-IMAX movie (the tickets for the 70mm IMAX cost around $35, according to customers).

“They were hardballing people about it,” Hochberg says. “There was a manager that said, ‘You need to make a decision or leave.'”

Hochberg opted to watch the film in its so-called inferior digital format.

“Jesus, what a movie, though,” he says.