Colorado is home to two of only 25 movie theaters in the country with IMAX 70mm projectors, long touted by directors like Oscar-winning Christopher Nolan as the “best possible experience” for audiences. But both Colorado projectors malfunctioned over the weekend, leaving ticketholders frustrated and in the dark for the opening weekend of Nolan’s “The Odyssey.”
“It sucks, especially with all the excitement around this movie and Denver having the opportunity to screen it the way it was intended to be,” said Kevin Reza, a 34-year-old who grew up in Denver and recently moved back to the city from San Francisco.
Reza, an avid moviegoer, said he secured tickets for an IMAX 70mm showing of “The Odyssey” at Regal UA Colorado Center more than a month ago. When he arrived at the Denver movie theater early Sunday morning, a line was already snaking out the door to get refunds for the apparently broken projector, which had gone down the day before, Reza said.
The manager offered refunds and a chance to watch the movie in a digital format, but that broke too — just 10 minutes into the nearly 3-hour movie, Reza said. Then it broke again. That’s when Reza said he had enough and walked out.
“It’s like, did they test it?” Reza asked. “It lasted Thursday, Friday, maybe into Saturday. … It’s about selling the idea and just not being able to deliver.”
The opening weekend of “The Odyssey” — the first feature shot entirely on IMAX film — also marked the launch of Colorado’s IMAX 70mm projectors. When Nolan’s “Oppenheimer” debuted in 2023, Colorado had no theaters capable of showing the IMAX 70mm format.
Now there are two: the Cinemark Carefree Circle XD in Colorado Springs and the Regal Colorado Center 9 in Denver. Both malfunctioned over the weekend, sending waves of outrage across social media.
The Cinemark projector went down for a Saturday afternoon showing but was fixed later that day, according to the theater. As of Monday morning, the Regal theater’s projector was still broken, and all of the showtimes for the foreseeable future had been switched to a digital IMAX format on the theater’s website.
“I purposefully bought my tickets for a week later. Figured there would be some growing pains,” one user wrote on the Cinemark Reddit.
“Nightmare scenario for them,” another Reddit user wrote of the downed Denver projector. “I feel so bad for those Regal employees, this is a bummer for everyone involved.”
The issues started as early as 12:53 p.m. Saturday, when one user reported that the Regal projector wouldn’t play “for more than a minute before it would cut to black.”
Nolan told the Associated Press in 2023 that the sharpness, clarity and depth of the image on IMAX 70mm is “unparalleled.”
“By shooting on IMAX 70mm film, you’re really letting the screen disappear,” he said. “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.”
According to IMAX, only 25 theaters in the United States are equipped to show movies in the 70mm format. Another 16 theaters abroad have the sought-after projectors.
Reza said it was frustrating to see all the hype around the IMAX 70mm and “committing to the director’s vision” only for the execution to fail. It feels like he paid a premium price to be a beta tester, he said.
“Now I feel a little jaded,” he said. “Do I even bother trying to buy tickets again to experience it? What if it happens again?”
He said it also raises questions about whether the theaters will be able to handle showing future movies on the 70mm IMAX projectors, like “Dune 3,” scheduled to premiere in December.
IMAX did not respond to questions about how theaters are picked for retrofitted IMAX 70mm projectors and what goes into the restoration and testing process. Regal’s team did not respond to questions about the malfunction and when the 70mm projector is expected to be back in action.
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The Associated Press contributed to this report.
