Well past midnight at Arizona Mills mall in Tempe, the place is a ghost town. The stores are shuttered, and the Harkins movie theater lobby is empty.
But within a few minutes, the IMAX lobby is flooded with people leaving the latest sold-out showing of Christopher Nolan’s “The Odyssey” in 70 mm.
“It was the only time we could find,” Jerome King said.
King and his newlywed wife, Nadia, were among the hundreds of moviegoers attending a showing at 1:30 a.m.
Most people would be in bed at this time, but it was the only showing the Kings could get tickets for at the Arizona Mills IMAX.
“You get the full picture, you get the full scope of what's going on in the movie and the way they shot it, too,” Nadia King said.
Arizona Mills is one of 25 theaters in the United States with an IMAX 70 mm projector, and “The Odyssey” is the first film shot in its entirety using IMAX cameras.
“I feel like since we're close enough to one, you might as well go see it if you're gonna see the movie at all,” Jerome King said.
For some moviegoers, like Suede Rondon, it is worth the hassle to see the film in this exact format. He was lucky enough to get tickets for more than one showing, but others, not so much.
“Today, some of my coworkers are trying to get tickets because I was talking about it. I was so hyped about it,” Rondon said. “And so we were all looking and we looked at, I think, three weeks into August, and there’s no tickets.”
His coworkers are not alone. Shows in the IMAX 70 mm format are sold out globally, and well into September for some theaters.
Rondon says he is a big fan of Nolan’s work and the mythology the film is based on. But for other movie goers like Dominic Sobieski, it’s not necessarily about the story.
“Dude, I have no idea what I'm getting into. I haven't even seen the trailer,” Sobieski said.
The IMAX experience is the draw.
“I'm seeing everywhere online that we got to watch this movie the way it was meant to be watched," Sobieski said.
The 70 mm IMAX screen is six stories tall. If you were to see this film at a different theater in Arizona — including other IMAX theaters — the edges of the frame would be cut off.
“I think the reason that this is sold out tonight at 1:30 a.m., people know that there's a difference. They know that they're missing out if they're not seeing it this way,” Sobieski said.
Tickets for “The Odyssey” in IMAX went on sale a full year before its release, and the Arizona Mills theater has added more IMAX showings to meet demand.
Harkins spokesperson Jessica Reeves said it’s not just locals coming in each day.
“They’re coming from all over the country, we have people flying in just to see it at the biggest screens at Harkins,” Reeves said.
To date, “The Odyssey” in IMAX has made $140 million worldwide, and up to $650 million in all formats.
“It just keeps going up,” said Bill Goodykoontz, a media critic for the Arizona Republic. “This movie, I would guess, would make a billion dollars.”
Goodykoontz is a big fan of the movie, especially in IMAX 70 mm. He said it’s nice to see people come together for this experience.
“Media has become so fragmented. Thursday night TV used to be a big thing,” Goodykoontz said. “And then Friday everybody would talk ‘Oh I can’t believe what they did on ‘’Seinfeld’ last night.’ ‘Can you believe what happened on ‘Friends’ last night?’ People don’t experience media in that way anymore.”
Goodykoontz said it’s still worth going if you aren’t able to see “The Odyssey” in IMAX 70 mm.
“It’s how Nolan, the director Christopher Nolan, intended for people to see the movie,” Goodykoontz said. “But I’ll tell you this, I saw it two days later in a regular theater and it’s still great.”
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