‘Oppenheimer’ Inspires Road Trips and Far-Flung Flights as Movie Buffs Clamor for the Ideal Viewing Experience

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Director Christopher Nolan touted the IMAX 70mm as the best way to see his historical drama. There’s just one hitch.

 

Cillian Murphy in ‘Oppenheimer.’ MELINDA SUE GORDON/UNIVERSAL/EVERETT COLLECTION

 

To view the highly anticipated “Oppenheimer” as director Christopher Nolan intended, some cinephiles are going the distance. 

 

Dedicated film buffs are hitting the road to grab a seat at one of only 30 theaters in the world capable of projecting IMAX 70mm film prints of “Oppenheimer.” Their journeys range from an hour’s drive to hourslong flights. Some are turning the excursions into weekend getaways, crashing at friends’ homes nearby. 

 

Many are also making sure they get the full “Barbenheimer” experience, seeing Greta Gerwig’s “Barbie” the same weekend.

 

Nolan is known for his dedication to the moviegoing experience and his use of large-format IMAX film. “Oppenheimer” is playing in theaters around the world, as well as in other IMAX cinemas, starting next weekend. But Nolan has touted the unique viewing experience of IMAX 70mm as the ideal way to see his three-hour long historical drama about the theoretical physicist behind the development of the atomic bomb, Robert Oppenheimer. “Tenet,” Nolan’s 2020 film, was the most recent film to be projected in IMAX 70mm.

 

In the U.S., just 19 IMAX theaters will project the 70mm film with a perfect 1.43:1 aspect ratio. None of those theaters are in Milwaukee, where Pablo Hurtado lives. So Hurtado, a freelance writer and senior annuity contract manager at an insurance brokerage, is taking Friday off work to get up at 5 a.m. and drive five hours to Indianapolis, where he will see “Oppenheimer” in IMAX 70mm. That’s where he and his brother saw Nolan’s “Dunkirk” several years ago. He lived in Fort Wayne, Ind., at the time, just a two-hour drive one-way.

 

Pablo Hurtado plans to wake up at 5 a.m. to see the film in Indianapolis. PHOTO: PABLO HURTADO

 

“It’s really hard to describe how incredible it is to see it on that big of a screen, and to know the filmmaker intended for it to be seen that way,” Hurtado said.

 

Projecting “Oppenheimer” at these theaters is no small feat. The movie’s IMAX 70mm film stock is more than 11 miles long and weighs more than 600 pounds. IMAX recruited experienced film projectionists to operate the film stock before Nolan’s latest film hits theaters.

 

“All the hype and IMAX marketing has really worked on me,” said Tim Goessling. He plans to drive from his home in suburban Boston to Providence, R.I., with his dad to see “Oppenheimer” on the best screen possible. “I just want to get it right,” he said.

 

“Oppenheimer” was captured using IMAX 65mm and other 65mm large-format film. While movies were traditionally made using 35mm film cameras, digital filmmaking has taken off over the past two decades and has created a lower-cost alternative that makes for easier distribution. Shooting with IMAX cameras and 65mm can be particularly expensive and cumbersome, said David Irving, an associate professor at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts. And some films projected onto the IMAX screen struggle to match “the grandeur and spectacle” of that theater experience, he said. 

 

“It’s a real treat to have a filmmaker sticking with film and doing it in a way that makes it as gigantic and cinematic as possible,” Irving said. He plans to see “Oppenheimer” at the one IMAX in New York City projecting the 70mm film. “Some people go to synagogue or to church, I go to IMAX,” he said. 

 

Christopher Nolan on the set of ‘Interstellar’ in 2014. PHOTO: MELINDA SUE GORDON/PARAMOUNT/EVERETT COLLECTION

 

Representatives for Nolan and Universal Pictures didn’t respond to requests for comment.

 

Global moviegoers are traversing borders to get to IMAX theaters capable of projecting the 70mm. The IMAX Palac Flora in Prague, the only theater showing the 70mm film in continental Europe, has counted ticket purchases from each of its bordering countries—Germany, Poland, Austria and Slovakia—as well as from as far away as Spain, according to IMAX. Australians are traveling across the country to the IMAX in Melbourne, while moviegoers from Japan, Sri Lanka and New Zealand are organizing their own trips to the Land Down Under, IMAX said.

 

Anderson Souza plans to fly on Ryanair from Lisbon for a quick trip opening weekend in London. Growing up in a small town in Brazil without a movie theater, Souza said he took hourslong bus rides to see movies. 

 

“I consider myself to be a very adventurous spirit,” Souza said. 

 

Cory Disbrow and his girlfriend plan to drive 3.5 hours to see the film. PHOTO: CORY DISBROW

 

 

The film aficionado said he’s particularly excited about the black-and-white sections of “Oppenheimer.” They mark the first time IMAX black and white analog was used; Kodak specifically manufactured 65mm black and white film for the production. “I expect to be very amazed by the quality of the image,” he said.

 

In the U.S., fans are planning long weekends around the film.

 

Cory Disbrow, who converted a guest room in his Orlando, Fla., home into a screening room as his passion for film flourished during the Covid-19 pandemic, is driving 3.5 hours to Fort Lauderdale with his girlfriend to view “Oppenheimer” on opening weekend at the only IMAX 70mm screen in the state. They’ll hit the beach, too.

 

“I thought, ‘Well, that’s not too far from home,’” Disbrow said. “It just kind of snowballed from there.” 

 

Naomi Maria Szczesiul is considering making her nine-hour drive from Greensboro, N.C., to the Indianapolis State Museum IMAX into an extended visit. The freelance designer and art director moved from Indianapolis during the pandemic and may spend some time with friends while in town. Shortly after seeing “Oppenheimer,” she plans to see “Barbie” at a local theater to complete the coveted double-feature.

 

Naomi Maria Szczesiul also plans to see ‘Barbie’ on her trip. PHOTO: NAOMI MARIA SZCZESIUL

 

Szczesiul doesn’t consider herself a film aficionado or an avid moviegoer. But her viewing experience with “Interstellar” on IMAX 70mm film years ago—and the hype around Barbenheimer—has drawn her back to the cinema.

 

“You can’t really appreciate film grain on a smaller size screen,” she said.

 

“If I’m going to watch a really depressing movie, I would like to see it in the most aesthetic way possible,” she added. “Some people have opinions about whether or not you can make beautiful things out of terrible things. I think it’s possible.”

 

For some avid filmgoers, the closest IMAX 70mm theater is out of reach. 

 

There aren’t any IMAX theaters projecting the 70mm film in Malaysia—the closest is in Melbourne. But Indra Amirrul, a 29-year-old finance manager living in Johor Bahru, plans to drive about four hours to Kuala Lumpur to see “Oppenheimer” at a newly opened IMAX theater that he says is considered the best in the country. 

 

He’s taken trips to see movies before. Last year he traveled to Singapore—under an hour drive—to see “Tár” and “Babylon.” But the trip to Kuala Lumpur will be his longest yet. He purposefully scheduled his annual trip to visit friends in the area around the “Oppenheimer” and “Barbie” release dates to pull off the double-feature. 

 

“This has been my personality for a couple of months,” Amirrul said. 

 

Write to Jennifer Calfas at [email protected]

 

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