Like Rocky making a triumphal return to the ring, the Tennessee Aquarium is celebrating three decades as a destination for giant-screen movie fans by bringing back the format that put it — and Chattanooga — on the cinematic map.
The theater’s enormous IMAX GT (Grand Theatre) 70mm film projector presented tens of thousands of shows during its 20 years as the operational heart of the Tennessee Aquarium IMAX 3D Theater. When it first illuminated the theater’s six-story screen on May 4, 1996, it represented the first opportunity many in the Southeast had to experience large-format 3D imagery. The next closest opportunity to do so was 450 miles away in New Orleans.
In 2016, however, this once-vital piece of equipment was taken offline during the Aquarium’s $1.6 million upgrade to a state-of-the-art IMAX with Laser digital projection suite. In keeping with its familiar place at the bleeding edge of cinematic technology, the Aquarium was one of only about a dozen facilities on the planet to make use of IMAX’s flagship digital projector when it was installed.
Now, the theater’s faithful film workhorse has been brought out of retirement to offer cinema fans the rare opportunity to properly experience director Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey, the first-ever feature-length film shot entirely on IMAX 70mm film. The Odyssey will begin screening on 70mm film at the IMAX 3D Theater on Thursday, July 16.
For Corey Cobb, a long-time film projectionist and the Aquarium’s director of IMAX operations, a recent test run once again threading 70mm film into this massive piece of equipment was like strapping into a time machine.
“Hearing it start back up for the first time in a decade, seeing all those little things that make film special —that was where it really hit,” Cobb says. “I never in a million years could have imagined that we’d be running films in that booth again.”
According to official IMAX availability, the Tennessee Aquarium IMAX Theater is one of just 25 theaters in the United States and 41 worldwide that will be showing The Odyssey — in 2D — on true IMAX 70mm.
That rare status adds to the theater’s cachet as a facility with an unparalleled giant-screen viewing experience. The facility’s massive screen, experienced staff and flagship projection equipment — whether digital or film — has led to its selection on four occasions as the host site for the Giant Screen Cinema Association (GSCA) international conference.
The excitement among fans of Nolan’s work and film gurus alike can be seen in the presale rush for screenings in Chattanooga. Since becoming available on June 4, more than 2,500 tickets have been sold to guests from 23 states, including some from as far away as New York, Washington and California.
“This theater has a reputation that goes far beyond this community for good presentations and great customer service,” says Gordon Stalans, the Aquarium’s chief operating officer and long-time GSCA board member. “I think that plays into the attention we’re getting.”
The reinstall was done earlier this spring by IMAX engineers after normal operating hours. Reviving the 70mm GT is even more special since this legacy equipment now sits alongside the theater’s IMAX with Laser GT projector. Combined, these models represent IMAX’s premiere approaches to film and digital projection.
“The number of facilities gets real small when you look at us from the perspective of having the greatest film projector and the greatest digital projector that IMAX has ever created,” Cobb says. “If you're an IMAX fanboy, we're one of maybe five in the United States that has the capability to do both.”
Because 70mm film is much larger than standard 35mm film, it produces an image that exceeds the dimensions of a standard wide-screen theater. On a standard theater screen, some of the extra imagery captured on large-format film cameras is lost due to the need to zoom in (crop) the image to fit. That means that, unless they’re watching The Odyssey at a facility like the Tennessee Aquarium IMAX Theater, viewers are literally missing about 40% of what the camera saw.
To fans of film’s unique qualities, like Nolan, however, film’s appeal isn’t just bigger but also: “better, full stop.”
“There’s nothing that competes with it. … There’s an image quality there that you can’t get anywhere else,” Nolan told 60 Minutes correspondent Scott Pelley. “Film sees very much how the eye sees, particularly the way it sees color, the way it sees grays and blacks and whites. It’s a really good way of approximating the way our eye sees.”
Advance tickets are on sale now for The Odyssey at the Tennessee Aquarium IMAX Theater. The film will screen from Thursday, July 16, to Thursday, Aug. 13. All showings will be in 2D at 1.43:1 aspect ratio on IMAX 70mm film. To check showtimes and purchase tickets, visit tnaqua.org/imax
The Odyssey is rated R and has a runtime of 2 hours 52 minutes (172 minutes).
DID YOU KNOW?
- While making The Odyssey, director Christopher Nolan used about 2 million feet (378 miles) of IMAX 70mm film. Stretched end to end, the final edit for The Odyssey is still almost 11 miles long.
- Even with technical improvements, IMAX cameras can only record a limited amount per reel. The cameras used on The Odyssey could only film for two and a half minutes before having to be reloaded.
- In its first year of operation, the Tennessee Aquarium IMAX 3D Theater welcomed about 700,000 guests. To date, more than 9.4 million people have visited the theater.
- For its first six months, the Aquarium’s new theater only showed one film, Into The Deep. In its lifetime, this film was shown 9,933 times, a record for the facility.
- A single frame of IMAX 70mm film has a surface area 10 times larger than that of standard 35mm film.
- IMAX 70mm film is heavy. The film print for The Odyssey weighs more than 550 pounds.