Seeing “The Odyssey” in Christopher Nolan’s preferred format may require an odyssey of your own.
The filmmaker’s latest epic was designed for 70mm IMAX, but Cincinnati moviegoers won’t find a single theater in the state showing it that way.
Here’s where Ohioans can go to catch the film in Nolan’s preferred format.
Where can Cincinnatians watch ‘The Odyssey’ in 70mm IMAX?
The closest option is Indianapolis, with several other 70mm IMAX locations scattered across the Midwest and East Coast.
The nearest 70mm IMAX venue for moviegoers in the Cincinnati area is the IMAX Theatre at the Indiana State Museum in Indianapolis, roughly a two-hour drive away.
Additional 70mm IMAX locations within driving distance include:
What is IMAX 70mm? Why does Christopher Nolan prefer it?
In the simplest terms, 70mm IMAX is the only way to see “The Odyssey” both in the highest resolution and on the largest screen possible.
A standard film strip is 35mm, so 70mm film is physically bigger, making for a higher resolution picture. Showing the movie in IMAX allows for an expanded image. So by seeing “The Odyssey” in 70mm IMAX, you’re seeing more of the frame than you would in a normal theater, and the image itself also looks better.
This is how Nolan recommends watching “The Odyssey,” but securing a seat in one of those screenings, particularly right after release, will be tough. The tickets are so in demand that 70mm IMAX screenings started going on sale in July 2025, one year before the movie’s release. At the famed Lincoln Square IMAX theater in New York City, even showings at 3 a.m. were fully sold out.
What makes ‘The Odyssey’ different from other IMAX movies?
Nolan has shown his films in 70mm IMAX before, including his most recent movie, “Oppenheimer.” But “The Odyssey” marks a historic first, both for Nolan and for movies in general: It’s the first narrative film to be shot entirely using IMAX cameras.
Typically, films will shoot only select sequences in IMAX, because IMAX cameras are loud, bulky and expensive. The cameras make so much noise that it has been difficult to film dialogue in this format, which is why most movies have only used IMAX cameras for big action sequences.
But with “The Odyssey,” Nolan solved this by placing the camera inside a casing dubbed a “blimp” to reduce the noise, allowing him to film both action and dialogue scenes for IMAX and maintain the expanded frame throughout the entire movie.
All the U.S. theaters showing ‘The Odyssey’ in 70mm IMAX
According to IMAX, “The Odyssey” will be showing in 70mm IMAX at the following locations in the United States:
Arizona
California
Colorado
Florida
Georgia
Illinois
Indiana
Michigan
Nevada
New York
Pennsylvania
Rhode Island
Tennessee
Texas
Can’t get a 70mm IMAX ticket? Here are your other options
If you can’t get into an IMAX 70mm showing, there are a few other premium format options that would be the next best thing.
One is standard IMAX, which benefits from a bigger screen and more expanded image than a regular theater. You’ll be missing out on the 70mm film experience, but the image will still “fill your entire field of vision on the floor-to-ceiling screen,” according to the movie’s official website.
At select locations, “The Odyssey” will also be available to watch on non-IMAX 70mm film. With this format, you’ll be getting a high-resolution picture, but without the full, tall image available with IMAX.
Dolby Cinema is another option, which offers a vivid image and is more widely available than 70mm. “The really fun thing with Dolby Vision is you’re looking at a very, very high contrast ratio: incredible blacks, very, very high, peak whites, peak brightnesses,” Nolan explained to Letterboxd, pointing to a nighttime storm sequence in the film that looks great in this format.
You can see a helpful comparison of how the image in “The Odyssey” will vary based on format using this page on the movie’s website.
Contributing: Patrick Ryan
This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Where to see ‘The Odyssey’ in IMAX 70mm? Closest theaters to Cincinnati
Reporting by Kaycee Sloan, Alex Perry and Brendan Morrow, Cincinnati Enquirer / Cincinnati Enquirer
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Kaycee Sloan, Alex Perry and Brendan Morrow, Cincinnati Enquirer | USA TODAY Network
