Some are concerned they will only see half of The Odyssey if they miss its IMAX showing

The Odyssey is the first film in history to be completely shot using IMAX cameras, but this has caused some viewers to worry that they will only see part of the image if they watch the film in traditional theaters. So, is that really a problem? Let’s dive into it. There are many ways to watch The Odyssey when it hits theaters on July 17, but the variety of available formats can be confusing. If you take a look at social media or Reddit discussions, you’ll find a wide debate about whether you’ll miss part of the experience if you don’t see the version shown in 70mm IMAX, which has a big promotional push. Among the comments, CP_Chronicler wrote: "So the audience will have six different options to watch the film, but only one of them shows the complete image?" Meanwhile, MooseBoys expressed his annoyance saying: "This is a ridiculous kind of monopolization. It’s fine if you want to shoot the film at that ratio, but don’t crop parts of the image for screens with different ratios, just don’t use the entire screen. Linear zooming is arbitrary anyway." We saw a similar situation in 2023 with Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer, which won a large number of Academy Awards, and the same thing happened in 2025 with two major films, Sinners and One Battle After Another, which were shown in different formats around the world, as the former was shot with a mix of 70mm Ultra Panavision and IMAX cameras, while the latter was shot with 35mm VistaVision cameras. The Odyssey is closer to Sinners in terms of filming style, as Ryan Coogler only used IMAX cameras in specific scenes, which has been the usual approach for years in most films that rely on this technology, due to its high cost and difficulty of use due to its large size and the noise it makes during filming. To address this issue, Nolan collaborated with IMAX to develop a new, quieter version of the camera, and the film was shot entirely using it on over two million feet of film stock. With all this effort, it’s natural to want to see The Odyssey in the best possible way. But with the variety of formats ranging from 70mm IMAX, if you’re lucky enough to live near a theater that supports it, to 35mm, standard IMAX, Dolby Vision, and others, it can get a bit confusing. Simply put, the 70mm IMAX version is the "most authentic" way to watch The Odyssey, but with only about 30 cinema screens worldwide capable of showing it in this format, this option won't be the most common. This version comes with an aspect ratio of 1.43:1, which is a more "square" image compared to traditional cinema screens, providing a taller image that fills the frame from top to bottom. This is because a ratio of 1.43:1 means that for every "100" units of height, the width is "143" units. Therefore, some viewers are concerned that if they watch Nolan's latest film in any other format, they won't see the film in its entirety, or at least not in the way its creators intended. To some extent, this is true. If you watch the film in a standard IMAX theater that does not support 70mm projection, you will see it with an aspect ratio of 1.90:1, meaning you will see about 40% less of the frame compared to 1.43:1, because every "100" units of height corresponds to "190" units in that format, and thus, to show the image in full width on the screen, part of the top and bottom of the frame must be cropped, or else the image won’t look correct. This becomes clearer if you watch the film in either the traditional 70mm or 35mm formats, which have aspect ratios of 2.20:1, or 100 height to 220 width, and 2.39:1, or 100 height to 239 width, respectively, meaning you will see less space from the top and bottom of the frame compared to the IMAX format. There’s also digital Dolby Vision and Premium Large Format, which can range between 1.85:1 and 2.39:1 depending on the theater. I warned you earlier that it can get confusing, and that’s even without getting into the differences in available sound systems. In short, yes, if you live near one of the few theaters in the a…