IMAX debut of ‘The Odyssey’ was a full year in waiting for moviegoers

The Kramer IMAX Theatre welcomed fans from across the globe for the Regina debut of Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey. Jacob Carr has the story.

A 365 day wait finally came to an end for those seated for Christopher Nolan’s ‘The Odyssey’ on Thursday.

Tickets went on sale for the first showing of the film at the Kramer IMAX theatre a full year ago.

Some in attendance from one province over in Manitoba like Stavan Parmar, whose favourite film of Nolan’s is ‘Interstellar,’ made the road trip to the nearest IMAX theatre to see the newest film from their favourite director.

“There’s only a couple of theatres in Canada that are only 70-millimetre IMAX. It’s like we have to do this no matter what. I’ve been a big Chris Nolan fan since day one. So, it had to be done,” he said.

Ryan Holota, chief operating officer of the Science Centre, mentioned that the last time the theatre experienced this much hype around a film just happened to be Christopher Nolan’s last major blockbuster.

“Christopher Nolan movies are a category entirely of their own. So, the last, film that we showed of his was ‘Oppenheimer’, which was in 2023. That was a massive thing for us,” he said.

• Regina’s IMAX is one of the only places on Earth to see ‘Oppenheimer’ in its full glory

The theme of the day seemed to be moviegoers’ shared love of Nolan’s films, and the love of cinema in general.

To say Adonis Bobetsis, a local, is a big fan of Nolan’s work, would be an understatement.

“I saw ‘Oppenheimer’ here four times, and then four more times. Actually, last week I saw it for a ninth time before I came here,” he said with a chuckle.

The IMAX version of ‘The Odyssey’ arrived in three separate crates, weighing nearly 600 pounds.

• Download the CTV News app to get breaking news alerts sent to your device

When the entirety of the film is stretched out, it is around 11 miles long. When wound, it still stretches six feet across.

Moviegoers like Qi Chen, whose favourite Nolan film is ‘The Dark Knight,’ was looking forward to seeing the finished product and being taken on a cinematic journey.

“I’m just really excited to experience it overall. And I think it’s three hours, that’ll be a really, really long journey. But yeah, I just heard a lot of good reviews on it,” Chen said.

Holota said this weekend alone, the theatre will see over 300 people from outside of Saskatchewan. That includes five different provinces, eight U.S. states, including Texas and North Carolina, and attendees from as far away as Mexico and Japan.