Not watching The Odyssey in IMAX means missing up to 40% of the movie | Films | Entertainment
This is hardly surprising, given that the Oscar-winning writer-director has harnessed IMAX cameras for the most epic sequences of his blockbusters over the years. Yet The Odyssey is a huge step up as the first film ever to be shot entirely on IMAX film cameras.
What this means is that if you watch The Odyssey in a regular cinema, you’re missing 40% of the image on screen. That’s 20% above and 20% below the picture. For the entire movie. However, even a regular IMAX cinema doesn’t show the fully captured image. Regular digital IMAX cinemas like Cineworld Leicester Square in London will show The Odyssey in a 1.9:1 format, which is around 26% more of the screen than a regular cinema, but still cuts off some of the top and bottom.
Incredibly, there are only three cinemas in the UK (and 41 globally) that are screening Nolan’s epic as he intended it to be seen, and that’s in the full 1.43:1 box-shaped ratio format. Having experienced it in all its glory at the BFI IMAX world premiere, I can safely say it’s like staring at a wall of screen with the most beautifully crisp picture (thanks to 70mm film), in a gloriously engrossing experience. And that’s 40% more of the image (the entire image shot) than in regular cinema’s format. Don’t miss out!
The Odyssey is out on Friday.
