‘Odyssey’ drives demand for Imax 70mm screenings

This week, the 39-year-old marketer embarks on his own hero’s journey as Mike Rohlfing sees The Odyssey in theaters.

Rohlfing and his wife and three children drove a minivan about 900 miles round trip from their home in St. Louis, Missouri, to Grand Rapids, Michigan. Destination: One of our selected movie theaters imax A 70mm screening of the epic film adaptation directed by Christopher Nolan.

“This is an incredible format,” Rohlfing told CNBC. “It was definitely worth traveling such a long distance for me.”

Rolling isn’t the only one going out of their way to experience it. universal This unusual style of film.

A-list actors like Zendaya and Anne Hathaway may be on the cast list, but the breakthrough performances come from the massive analog viewing experience beloved by Nolan and his fans. Exclusive data shared with CNBC shows how the film has driven interest in big-ticket Imax 70mm screenings.

It is part of a class of high-end screening types known as “Premium Large Format” (PLF). According to EntTelligence, an adult Imax 70mm ticket for opening weekend cost the typical attendee $27.77. This is 81% higher than the average admission price for each format.

“IMAX’s 70mm film has become one of the hottest tickets in the world,” IMAX CEO Richard Gelfond said on a conference call with analysts Thursday. “Fans are flying across countries, if not continents, to experience ‘The Odyssey’ and Imax 70mm.”

During the opening weekend, Gelfond reported that the 70mm-compatible average screen brought in a “huge” box office gross of $153,000. Gelfond said IMAX 70mm screenings of “The Odyssey” will be held over several months.

But Imax can’t immediately increase the number of screenings to meet the growing interest. That’s because only a small percentage of all Imax theaters are large enough and equipped with the expensive machinery needed to project huge rolls of 70mm film. Imax has 25 theaters listed in the U.S. and an additional 16 internationally showing “The Odyssey” in 70mm.

“We could have more facilities and we’re figuring out how to do that, but in a way it’s like a Rolls Royce,” Gelfond said of the Imax 70mm auditorium. “There are only a limited number of places that can actually support the economy.”

Nolan’s film is also the first feature film to be shot entirely on Imax 70mm cameras. Other directors used the format for small, action-packed scenes within featurettes shot in more conventional ways.

Even with a limited screen, Cinemark told CNBC that demand for Imax 70mm screenings in states including Colorado and Texas is “very strong.” Regal said the nearly three-hour film became the chain’s best Imax 70mm showing.

The Imax 70mm theater at the Indiana State Museum (the only film company showing this format in the Hoosier State) has added an additional week of screenings in August due to “historic” demand.

Indiana Theater Manager Neil Johantgen said more than half of the opening day audience traveled at least 80 miles. His team has welcomed visitors from more than 20 states and fielded requests from moviegoers looking to score tickets from places as far away as Switzerland.

“Demand is higher than ever,” Johantgen said. “That’s amazing.”

With limited availability, securing a ticket for Imax 70mm is a battle in itself. The theater shows movies 24 hours a day, but even early morning screenings are fully booked. Some theaters sell Imax 70mm tickets a year in advance.

Morgan Bernados couldn’t stand in line at her local theater in the San Francisco Bay Area when seats were drastically reduced a few months ago. The 27-year-old nonprofit worker was able to snag tickets to Monday night’s screening after switching her focus to an Imax 70mm screen about 90 minutes away.

“It felt like buying tickets to a concert,” Bernados said, likening the process to the frenzy of Taylor Swift’s Ellas tour. “There’s definitely a ‘FOMO’ factor.”

Ashton Jones was only able to secure a seat for the 3 a.m. showing at the only Imax 70mm theater in his home state of Georgia. The 26-year-old information technology manager drank a Red Bull energy drink about halfway through the movie to stay alert. After the end credits rolled and Jones drove home for about an hour, it was almost time for him to go to work.

“It was fun,” Jones said. “But the next day it hurt.”

IMAX’s stock has outperformed its peers over the past year, and investors see the company’s premium products as a key factor in getting consumers to see movies in theaters. Wall Street expects more upside: LSEG says most analysts rate it a buy, and the average price target suggests the stock could rise an additional 12% over the next year.

IMAX reported second-quarter results Thursday that beat analysts’ profit expectations and marked the company’s biggest single-session gain in recent history. The Canada-based company also reported a year-over-year increase in contracts and installations within its network.

“It really creates an experience that you can’t recreate at home,” said Steve Frankel, senior research analyst at Wall Street firm Rosenblatt Securities. “The 70mm experience is truly a premium experience.”

Director Nolan and the film’s stars encourage viewers to watch this blockbuster in Imax 70mm. But box-office trackers credit social media users and young moviegoers with playing a leading role in creating buzz around these screenings of “The Odyssey.”

The amount of social media and news media conversation about the Imax 70 mm format nearly doubled in the five days starting July 17, according to Meltwater data analyzed exclusively for CNBC. The monitoring firm said overall sentiment on the subject became increasingly positive during this period.

relative google According to the company’s data, search volume for “Imax 70 mm” is expected to set a new record this month. The last peak was around the time Oppenheimer, for which Nolan won the Best Picture Oscar, was released in the summer of 2023.

Shaun Robbins, founder of Box Office Theory and director of analytics at Fandango, said Imax 70mm is “really gaining traction and not just with hardcore movie fans,” adding that it’s “starting to spread into the pop culture lexicon.”

Robbins said he expects “Odyssey” to return to Imax 70mm theaters during the slow period of the fall release calendar. He said this excitement could increase interest in future films that will be shown in the same format, such as: warner bros discovery“Dune: Part 3” is scheduled to be released in December.

For consumers like Alexandria Kinsey, comparing the viewing formats of “The Odyssey” led to an education in theatrical terminology. The woman, who lives in the Washington area, said she used TikTok to research the differences between screening types with names like “XL” and “Dolby Cinema.” She has found that viewing that is advertised as simply “Imax” or “70mm” is not a true Imax 70mm experience.

“I thought, ‘What the hell does this mean?'” Kinsey said. “It’s overwhelming.”

Kinsey ultimately settled on showing the film in Dolby Cinema, but hopes to see the film again in Imax in the future. Kinsey said events like concerts have become increasingly expensive amid the post-pandemic “fanflation” phenomenon, but the 28-year-old felt premium-format movies were an affordable luxury that fit within her budget.

Mr. Rohlfing, a St. Louis-based marketer, has become an Imax 70mm disciple among his friends and on social media.

When packing the car, Rohlfing made sure there was room for the special Imax collectible popcorn bucket released in conjunction with “The Odyssey.” Imax said more than 10,000 carriers were sold, with some items selling out within minutes.

Rohlfing has a habit of reminding friends to make sure their project films are shown on Imax. Rohlfing said that when theaters go digital instead of analog, audiences will have an experience he jokingly describes as “limax.”

“I’m a little bit known as an IMAX purist,” Rohlfing said.

Disclosure: Versant Media is the parent company of CNBC and Fandango.