For nearly a decade, the Tennessee Aquarium’s original IMAX 70 mm film projector sat silent in the projection booth, a relic of an earlier era of giant-screen filmmaking.
This week, it’s back where it belongs.
The massive projector, which introduced moviegoers to six-story IMAX presentations after opening in 1996, has been reinstalled to screen director Christopher Nolan’s “The Odyssey” – the first feature film shot entirely on IMAX 70 mm film.
Through Aug. 13, audiences at the Tennessee Aquarium IMAX Theater will once again experience movies the way the format was originally designed to be seen.
When the Aquarium’s IMAX 3D Theater opened May 4, 1996, it brought a cinematic experience to the Southeast that was almost impossible to find elsewhere. At the time, the nearest theater capable of showing giant-screen 3D IMAX films was 450 miles away in New Orleans.
For 20 years, the theater’s IMAX GT (Grand Theatre) 70 mm projector powered tens of thousands of screenings before being retired in 2016 during a $1.6 million renovation that introduced IMAX with Laser digital projection.
The Aquarium became one of only about a dozen theaters worldwide to install IMAX’s flagship laser projection system.
Now, film has returned.
For Corey Cobb, the Aquarium’s director of IMAX operations and a longtime projectionist, threading 70 mm film through the enormous machine again was an emotional experience.
“Hearing it start back up for the first time in a decade, seeing all the 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.”
The Tennessee Aquarium is one of only 25 theaters in the United States – and just 41 worldwide – that will present “The Odyssey” on true IMAX 70 mm film. All screenings will be presented in 2D using the full 1.43:1 IMAX aspect ratio.
That distinction reinforces the Chattanooga theater’s reputation among film enthusiasts as a premier giant-screen venue.
Over the years, the enormous screen, skilled staff and cutting-edge technologies have earned the theater the honor of hosting the Giant Screen Cinema Association’s international conference four separate times.
Interest from movie lovers has also extended well beyond Tennessee.
Since advance tickets became available June 4, guests from 23 states – including visitors from New York, Washington and California – have purchased more than 2,500 seats.
“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 a longtime Giant Screen Cinema Association board member. “I think that plays into the attention we’re getting.”
The return of the 70 mm projector was completed earlier this spring by IMAX engineers working after regular theater hours.
Its revival creates a rare pairing. The original IMAX GT film projector now operates alongside the theater’s IMAX with Laser GT digital system, giving the Aquarium two of the most advanced projection technologies IMAX has ever produced.
“The number of facilities gets really 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.”
The difference is more than nostalgia.
Traditional 70 mm IMAX film captures a much larger image than standard 35 mm film. In conventional multiplex theaters, much of that image must be cropped to fit wide-screen screens, meaning audiences never see everything the camera recorded.
At the Tennessee Aquarium, the theater’s 66-foot-tall by 89-foot-wide screen matches IMAX’s signature 1.43:1 aspect ratio, allowing viewers to experience the entire image captured by Nolan’s cameras. Compared to standard theatrical presentations, audiences can see 40% more of the original frame.
For Nolan, one of Hollywood’s most outspoken advocates for shooting on film, that’s only part of the appeal.
“There’s nothing that competes with it. There’s an image quality there that you can’t get anywhere else,” Nolan told Scott Pelley in a recent “60 Minutes” interview. “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.”
“The Odyssey” will screen at the Tennessee Aquarium IMAX Theater through Thursday, Aug. 13.
The film is rated R, runs 2 hours, 52 minutes (172 minutes), and will be shown exclusively in 2D on IMAX 70 mm film.
Advance tickets and showtimes are available through the Tennessee Aquarium.