{"id":9926,"date":"2026-07-18T21:42:25","date_gmt":"2026-07-18T16:42:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=9926"},"modified":"2026-07-18T21:42:25","modified_gmt":"2026-07-18T16:42:25","slug":"the-odyssey-2am-screenings-in-imax-70mm-inside-my-all-night-adventure","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=9926","title":{"rendered":"The Odyssey 2AM Screenings in Imax 70mm: Inside My All-Night Adventure"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><script>\r\n  atOptions = {\r\n    'key' : '644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6',\r\n    'format' : 'iframe',\r\n    'height' : 90,\r\n    'width' : 728,\r\n    'params' : {}\r\n  };\r\n<\/script>\r\n<script src=\"https:\/\/www.highperformanceformat.com\/644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tThe weather was mythical.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tNinety-something degrees in Manhattan, with Canadian wildfire smoke painting the sky a hazy orange. It smelled like a barbecue of rotten onions; the air was a spritz of acid to the eyes. \u201cStay inside,\u201d warned the weather app.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\t<em>The gods hath forsaken us<\/em>, I thought on the opening night of \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/variety.com\/t\/the-odyssey\/\" id=\"auto-tag_the-odyssey\" data-tag=\"the-odyssey\">The Odyssey<\/a>,\u201d washing me and 650 other castaways onto the shores of the Upper West Side, where a 2 a.m. screening of the <a href=\"https:\/\/variety.com\/t\/christopher-nolan\/\" id=\"auto-tag_christopher-nolan\" data-tag=\"christopher-nolan\">Christopher Nolan<\/a> epic in Imax 70mm was playing to an entirely sold-out room.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tIf staying up all night at the movies sounds crazy, then the Lincoln Square AMC was a psych ward. It should be noted that this screening was not a novelty \u2014 a one-off, all-night experience for Nolan nerds and Classics majors. No, AMC has set up 2 a.m., 3 a.m. and 6 a.m. screenings through the film\u2019s fourth weekend to meet the demand for Imax 70mm. The theater chain is showing the three-hour film six times a day in the premium large format, which is only available in 25 cinemas in the U.S.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tThese tickets, in other words, were <em>hard to get<\/em>. (According to Imax, this multiplex has sold \u201cessentially every single seat for all showtimes scheduled between midnight and 3 a.m.\u201d)<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tAround 1 a.m., as I socialized with the other insomniacs outside the theater, it became apparent that while \u201cThe Odyssey\u201d is what brought them here, the film projection technology was the real star. Asked why they chose to forgo sleep on a week<del> <\/del>night to experience the Homer adaptation, the first words out of everyone\u2019s mouth were not \u201cChristopher Nolan\u201d or \u201cMatt Damon\u201d but \u201cImax 70mm.\u201d More important than the cast or the logline was the fact that \u201cThe Odyssey\u201d is the first movie ever shot entirely on Imax film.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\t\u201cI need to see the movie the way Christopher Nolan intended it to be seen,\u201d said a 30-year-old New York resident named Christian. \u201cEven though this is going to fuck my Friday.\u201d<\/p>\n<div class=\"post-content-image \/\/  size-large alignnone \">\n<figure class=\"o-figure  lrv-u-font-family-secondary u-color-medium-grey lrv-u-border-b-1 u-border-color-light-grey-tint-two u-margin-b-150 lrv-u-max-width-100p\" style=\"width:1024px\">\n<div class=\"c-lazy-image  \">\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"c-lazy-image__img lrv-u-background-color-grey-lightest lrv-u-width-100p lrv-u-display-block lrv-u-height-auto\" src=\"https:\/\/variety.com\/wp-content\/themes\/pmc-variety-2020\/assets\/public\/lazyload-fallback.gif\" data-lazy-src=\"https:\/\/variety.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/MCDODYS_UV020.jpg?w=1024\" alt=\"\" data-lazy-srcset=\"https:\/\/variety.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/MCDODYS_UV020.jpg 3000w, https:\/\/variety.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/MCDODYS_UV020.jpg?resize=150,100 150w, https:\/\/variety.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/MCDODYS_UV020.jpg?resize=300,200 300w, https:\/\/variety.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/MCDODYS_UV020.jpg?resize=1920,1280 1920w, https:\/\/variety.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/MCDODYS_UV020.jpg?resize=1360,907 1360w, https:\/\/variety.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/MCDODYS_UV020.jpg?resize=1000,667 1000w, https:\/\/variety.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/MCDODYS_UV020.jpg?resize=910,607 910w, https:\/\/variety.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/MCDODYS_UV020.jpg?resize=681,454 681w, https:\/\/variety.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/MCDODYS_UV020.jpg?resize=450,300 450w, https:\/\/variety.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/MCDODYS_UV020.jpg?resize=250,167 250w\" data-lazy-sizes=\"(min-width: 87.5rem) 1000px, (min-width: 78.75rem) 681px, (min-width: 48rem) 450px, (max-width: 48rem) 250px\" height=\"682\" width=\"1024\" decoding=\"async\"\/><\/p><\/div><figcaption class=\"c-figcaption  lrv-u-flex lrv-u-flex-direction-column lrv-u-padding-t-1 lrv-u-padding-b-1\">\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t<span class=\"lrv-u-color-black lrv-u-line-height-normal lrv-u-font-size-14 u-font-family-neue u-letter-spacing-007-rem u-margin-b-050\">Christopher Nolan on set of \u201cThe Odyssey\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<cite class=\"u-color-medium-grey u-font-family-neue-xxs\">\u00a9Universal\/Courtesy Everett Collection<\/cite><\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tAt 1:20 a.m., a line began snaking around the escalator. People crowded the entrance as if waiting for their boarding group to be called, which didn\u2019t make sense to me \u2014 there were no overhead bins to claim! AMC staffers manned multiple checkpoints, monitoring the capacity like nightclub bouncers.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tDespite the palpable enthusiasm, no one exactly <em>wanted<\/em> to be here. If there was one adjective to describe everyone at this 2 a.m. screening, it was <em>desperate<\/em>. \u201cI had to fight for my life to book these tickets,\u201d a 30-year-old man named Miraj told me. \u201cThey were sold out everywhere.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tWhen Nolan\u2019s last film, \u201cOppenheimer,\u201d came out, Miraj had to wait a month to see it on this towering silver screen, so he wasn\u2019t going to make the same mistake again. \u201cI had notifications turned on for Discord, Reddit and a bunch of other places.\u201d He felt lucky to grab seats for even this showtime. Gesturing at his low-energy friends, he scoffed, \u201cThese guys are being ungrateful.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tAt 2 a.m., hundreds of people buzzed outside the auditorium, hurrying in to secure their provisions. My spoils: a pepperoni pizza and a chalice of the divine elixir known as Diet Coke.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tAMC had assembled a graveyard army for this siege. At one point I counted 12 employees working behind the concession stand, which is more than I\u2019ve ever seen as a veteran A-Lister. I asked a staffer named Kiara what it\u2019s like to work these overnight shifts. \u201cI love it,\u201d she said with a glowing smile. \u201cI just love serving customers.\u201d (Did AMC know a journalist was coming?)<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tBefore the movie started, I noticed more than a dozen people cradling miniature Trojan Horses, which I thought, naively, might have been giveaways. It turns out they were popcorn buckets \u2014 there\u2019s a hidden compartment in the horse\u2019s belly\u00a0\u2014 that cost $70. The other souvenir popcorn bucket, a replica of an Imax camera, sold out immediately, according to Kiara.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tNot everyone was in a money-spending mood. I made eye contact with a guy who scurried into the theater with a water cup filled with cherry-flavored Icee. Somewhere, I imagined Athena shaking her head.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tThe clientele was hard to pin down: Most people looked between 25 and 35, but there were a few father-son duos, plenty of Tri-State area teenagers and what appeared to be an 11-year-old girl who\u2019d been granted a severe bedtime extension. Roaming the theater, I heard Spanish, German, Hindi and Chinese.<\/p>\n<div class=\"post-content-image \/\/  size-large alignnone \">\n<figure class=\"o-figure  lrv-u-font-family-secondary u-color-medium-grey lrv-u-border-b-1 u-border-color-light-grey-tint-two u-margin-b-150 lrv-u-max-width-100p\" style=\"width:1024px\">\n<div class=\"c-lazy-image  \">\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"c-lazy-image__img lrv-u-background-color-grey-lightest lrv-u-width-100p lrv-u-display-block lrv-u-height-auto\" src=\"https:\/\/variety.com\/wp-content\/themes\/pmc-variety-2020\/assets\/public\/lazyload-fallback.gif\" data-lazy-src=\"https:\/\/variety.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/MCDODYS_UV007.jpg?w=1024\" alt=\"\" data-lazy-srcset=\"https:\/\/variety.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/MCDODYS_UV007.jpg 3000w, https:\/\/variety.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/MCDODYS_UV007.jpg?resize=150,100 150w, https:\/\/variety.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/MCDODYS_UV007.jpg?resize=300,200 300w, https:\/\/variety.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/MCDODYS_UV007.jpg?resize=1920,1280 1920w, https:\/\/variety.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/MCDODYS_UV007.jpg?resize=1360,907 1360w, https:\/\/variety.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/MCDODYS_UV007.jpg?resize=1000,667 1000w, https:\/\/variety.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/MCDODYS_UV007.jpg?resize=910,607 910w, https:\/\/variety.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/MCDODYS_UV007.jpg?resize=681,454 681w, https:\/\/variety.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/MCDODYS_UV007.jpg?resize=450,300 450w, https:\/\/variety.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/MCDODYS_UV007.jpg?resize=250,167 250w\" data-lazy-sizes=\"(min-width: 87.5rem) 1000px, (min-width: 78.75rem) 681px, (min-width: 48rem) 450px, (max-width: 48rem) 250px\" height=\"683\" width=\"1024\" decoding=\"async\"\/><\/p><\/div><figcaption class=\"c-figcaption  lrv-u-flex lrv-u-flex-direction-column lrv-u-padding-t-1 lrv-u-padding-b-1\">\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t<span class=\"lrv-u-color-black lrv-u-line-height-normal lrv-u-font-size-14 u-font-family-neue u-letter-spacing-007-rem u-margin-b-050\">\u201cThe Odyssey\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<cite class=\"u-color-medium-grey u-font-family-neue-xxs\">\u00a9Universal\/Courtesy Everett Collection<\/cite><\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tI took my seat around 2:15, and finally, around 2:30, Nicole Kidman <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=KiEeIxZJ9x0\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">appeared on-screen<\/a> to remind us why We Come to This Place. She was greeted with effusive applause. When a title card introduced a four-minute sneak peek of \u201cDune: Part Three,\u201d I started thinking about my own bedtime.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tThirty minutes into the movie, I started showing signs of weakness. My head felt heavy, and, in solidarity with the Cyclops, I started squinting with one eye open. At 3:39 a.m., the middle-aged woman next to me bobbled in and out of consciousness and slumped her head onto my shoulder. She immediately apologized, and I thought about proposing we lift the armrest between us and figure out some sort of symbiotic sleep situation. It was too late: She turned the other way and buried her head in her husband\u2019s lap.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tBy the time Odysseus and co. visited Hades, I had caught a second wind. Toward the end of the movie, I looked around and found everyone except for my neighbor wide awake. Miraculously, only a few seats were vacant. Somewhere around 4:30, when Odysseus finally returned home to take on the suitors leering at his wife, the audience roared with applause.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tAs the credits rolled, I stumbled out of the room and brushed the pizza crumbs off my T-shirt. <em>AMC should sell a bacon, egg and cheese<\/em>, I remember thinking. <em>\u201cWe did \u2018The Odyssey!\u201d<\/em> shouted a woman in red flannel pajama pants and a blue blanket-hoodie hybrid.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tOutside, as the sky began to lighten, people weren\u2019t in any rush to leave. They gathered in circles, gushing over the film and geeking out about their favorite moments. Everyone seemed to bring a friend or partner \u2014 a witness \u2014\u00a0to this insane event. That <em>communal movie theater experience <\/em>everyone talks about? Well, this is the hardcore version. These are the schlubby, sleep-deprived heroes hell-bent on preserving cinema.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\t\u201cI\u2019m putting this on my Instagram story with a time stamp,\u201d one guy blabbed as he took a photo of his friend still eating from a large popcorn bucket. Another guy taking a selfie video raved, \u201cMovie was great\u00a0\u2014 10 out of 10. Maybe 9 out of 10.\u201d A group of young cinephiles stormed Letterboxd like soldiers at the gates of Troy.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\t\u201cI have so much to say. No words,\u201d one guy raved oxymoronically to his friends. I couldn\u2019t tell if he was speechless or just tired.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tEventually, like Odysseus, most people started to find their way home, hailing cabs and heading to the subway. For others, the night was just beginning. \u201cIt\u2019s five o\u2019clock somewhere,\u201d a man said to his friend as they considered hitting a bar.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\t<em>Yes<\/em>, I thought as I looked at the time. <em>Here<\/em>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<script async=\"async\" data-cfasync=\"false\" src=\"https:\/\/pl30214220.effectivecpmnetwork.com\/9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<div id=\"container-9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\"><\/div>\r\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The weather was mythical. Ninety-something degrees in Manhattan, with Canadian wildfire smoke painting the sky a hazy orange. It smelled like a barbecue of rotten onions; the air was a spritz of acid to the eyes. \u201cStay inside,\u201d warned the weather app. The gods hath forsaken us, I thought on the opening night of \u201cThe&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9927,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/variety.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/MCDODYS_UV015_7a9229-e1784387969684.jpg?w=1000&h=563&crop=1","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9926","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pics-news"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9926","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9926"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9926\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/9927"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9926"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9926"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9926"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}