Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey, the first feature film shot entirely on IMAX cameras, has turned the Cinema City cinema at Prague’s Flora into a European destination. It is the only cinema in Central and Eastern Europe capable of projecting analogue IMAX 15/70 - the format Nolan shot the film for. Screenings sell out weeks in advance, including the 9 a.m. and midnight shows, and viewers travel in from Germany, Poland, Slovakia, Hungary, Austria, Scandinavia and Britain.
Why IMAX 15/70 is so rare
- Roughly 41 cinemas worldwide, only 3 in Europe can project from 70mm IMAX film stock.
- 1.43:1 aspect ratio - the image fills the entire giant screen and is roughly 40% larger than standard widescreen projection.
- Resolution equivalent to roughly 12-18K - far beyond any current digital projection.
- A runtime limit of just over 3 hours - a physical constraint of the film format that filmmakers have to plan around.
The technology the audience never sees
Flora runs an IMAX GT projector that has served the cinema since 2003. The film print of The Odyssey weighs around 300 kilograms and is manufactured exclusively in a California laboratory; a single print costs about USD 55,000 (roughly CZK 1.2 million) and shipping it alone runs to tens of thousands of crowns. A print survives hundreds of screenings without major degradation, because the image area of the film touches the mechanism at just one point. Czech subtitles are projected separately, not printed on the film.
Operating it takes a specially trained projection team, and the projector’s xenon lamps are water-cooled. It is a craft that vanished from ordinary cinemas with digitisation - which is exactly why it has become an experience people fly across half of Europe for. A ticket costs CZK 449 and sells out within minutes of going on sale.
What any cinema can take from this
The Prague IMAX shows in extreme form something that holds generally: audiences will travel and pay for an experience they cannot replicate at home. On a smaller scale, that is precisely why investing in projection and sound quality pays off for cinemas - whether it is laser projection and modern DCI projectors, or immersive sound. The difference from the living room is what sells tickets. And if you are curious how digital cinema works technically, browse our digital cinema glossary.
Sources: Seznam Zprávy: The Odyssey draws foreigners to Prague · Seznam Zprávy: interview with the projectionist · Aktuálně.cz: The Odyssey sparked an unexpected trend.