Where to see ‘The Odyssey’ in 70mm near Seattle, and why it matters

As Christopher Nolan’s next epic, “The Odyssey,” stormed into theaters last weekend with the largest international opening weekend of his career, Seattle fans clamoring to gaze upon the latest swords-and-sandals spectacle are left with limited options.

“Not only does he use real action and real sets and real stunts, but Nolan insisted on filming it in 70 millimeter, which is IMAX capacity filming,” KIRO host Spike O’Neill said.

What makes 70mm so special?

“The Odyssey” is the first feature shot entirely on IMAX film. This wasn’t possible until the development of a camera muffler, dubbed “the blimp,” was finished to help silence the normally noisy camera for dialogue-heavy scenes. The film is dedicated to David Keighley, who created the IMAX camera equipped with the blimp. Keighley died three weeks after finishing his work on the film.

Previously, Nolan would shoot his films through a combination of IMAX 65mm and Panavision 65mm that’s then projected in 70mm.

“The sharpness and the clarity and the depth of the image is unparalleled,” Nolan said, according to The Associated Press. “The headline, for me, is by shooting on IMAX 70 mm film, you’re really letting the screen disappear. You’re getting a feeling of 3D without the glasses. You’ve got a huge screen, and you’re filling the peripheral vision of the audience. You’re immersing them in the world of the film.”

Where do IMAX 70mm theaters exist?

But only 25 theaters in the U.S. can show movies in the IMAX 70mm film format, with 10 existing in either Los Angeles or New York.

“Nationwide, there’s been kind of a scramble to reinstall some of these type projectors in certain theaters because there’s such a demand to see this, as it was intended to be shown — in IMAX 70 millimeter,” Spike said. “It’s not 4K, it’s like 12K.”

Other film formats, like 35 mm, digital and CinemaScope, have the top and the bottom of the screen cropped.

Washington is not home to any theater that can play IMAX 70mm format after the Pacific Science Center in Seattle stopped screening feature films.

The Boeing IMAX Theater, the largest theater screen in all of Washington, will no longer show feature films, the Pacific Science Center announced.

The IMAX theater, now known as “IMAX at the Center,” is 80 feet wide and six stories tall — or, as the Pacific Science Center describes it, five tyrannosaurus rexes tall and two tyrannosaurus rexes wide — and seats 373 people. Known for playing both feature films and documentaries, the venue will only screen IMAX documentaries and content from the Chihuly Glass Center moving forward.

However, Bellevue does provide a standard 70mm option.

“You can go to Bellevue AMC; it has a 70 millimeter,” Jake said. “They actually have to bring a guy in because, again, it requires a special projectionist. They had to bring a guy in from Utah just to do the screenings.”

“I don’t want to see it in a regular theater,” Spike added.

Additionally, SIFF Cinema Downtown and AMC Pacific Place 11 are screening “The Odyssey” in standard 70mm.

‘The Odyssey’ earns massive opening weekend, glowing reviews

“The Odyssey” hauled in $264.1 million internationally throughout opening weekend, making it Nolan’s biggest global opening. The $124.5 million domestic opening weekend made the film the fourth-highest R-rated opening of all time. More than $50 million of the global ticket sales were for large format screenings.

The film currently holds a 95% critic approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes (and a 97% audience approval rating) in addition to earning an 89 Metacritic score.

Watch the full discussion in the video above.

Contributing: The Associated Press

Listen to “The Jake and Spike Show” weekdays from noon to 3 p.m. on KIRO Newsradio 97.3