AMC Theatres is pulling moviegoers to the Upper West Side for The Odyssey in IMAX 70mm. At AMC Lincoln Square, the second-largest IMAX 70mm theater in the world, the trip has become part of the viewing plan. For Logan Algood, a movie theater employee from St. Louis, the screen was worth three to four months of advance planning.
Upper West Side 70mm draw
Only about 30 IMAX 70mm theaters exist in the world, and the biggest one is in Melbourne, Australia. AMC Lincoln Square sits at West 68th Street and Broadway, with a screen that measures 75.6 feet high by 101 feet wide. That scale helps explain why people are traveling to New York for a format that does not exist in many places.
IMAX 70mm is an analog film format that runs horizontally on a film reel, with each frame measuring 15 perforations. It is projected at 18K resolution, which gives the presentation a technical weight that ordinary premium formats cannot match. For a nearly three-hour-long film like The Odyssey, the format itself becomes part of the ticket.
Logan Algood plans ahead
“I started planning probably three-four months ago,” Algood said of his New York trip. He added that “The film to me really feels like a monumental achievement, especially being the first ever entirely shot on IMAX cameras. Nolan’s craft feels like it necessitates being seen in the most immersive experience possible.”
He also pushed back on the idea that the trip is excessive. “Several people have asked why I’d waste my time and money going to New York just to watch a movie. It is a movie, yes, but to me, it’s much more of an experience. Why shouldn’t I travel to see one of my favorite director’s new films in the format that he intended for it to be seen?”
Mexico and St. Louis trips
A social media user from Mexico said they were going to New York in July for the movie and bought a front-row ticket to see a real IMAX 70mm theater because it does not exist in Mexico. Matt Damon said he has already seen the film at the Upper West Side theater, calling the experience “overwhelming in the best possible way.”
Christopher Nolan’s last film, Oppenheimer, grossed over $976 million and earned seven Oscars in 2024, which helps explain why a rare format can now draw travelers as much as local ticket buyers. The practical question now is not whether the theater matters; it is how many more people decide the screen itself is the reason to make the trip.
