Why you’re probably not watching The Odyssey in ‘real’ IMAX | Explained

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Christopher Nolan shot his epic entirely on 65mm film but what most audiences will actually see is something different

Updated - July 18, 2026 01:24 pm IST

Christopher Nolan’s ‘The Odyssey’ is the first feature-length film shot entirely with IMAX’s proprietary 65mm film cameras and intended for 70mm IMAX projection. Photo Credit: Melinda Sue Gordon/Universal Pictures

The big picture: Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey opened this week as the first feature-length film in cinema history shot entirely with IMAX’s proprietary cameras, captured on 65mm negative and printed for exhibition on 70mm stock, yet only a few dozen theatres worldwide can show it that way. Everywhere else, audiences are watching a digital stand-in for a negative built for something else, in set-ups cinephiles have long nicknamed ‘Liemax’. That matters more for this film than almost any other, and understanding why requires separating what IMAX actually is from the brand that has grown up around it.

Aspect ratio, the ratio of a frame width to its height, is where all of this starts. Most films today are shown at either 1.85:1 (’flat’) or 2.39:1, often rounded to 2.40:1 and generally called ‘scope’, both wide rectangles that are cropped or letterboxed to fit inside an ordinary cinema screen. IMAX runs the other way, at 1.43:1, a frame closer to square that fills far more of the screen vertically.

Published - July 18, 2026 11:58 am IST

The Hindu Explains / cinema / entertainment (general) / arts, culture and entertainment / cinema / English cinema / production & direction (cinema)

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