GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — Celebration Cinema's Grand Rapids North theater is one of just 31 locations worldwide to receive a copy of the elusive 70 millimeter cut of Christopher Nolan's upcoming historical thriller Oppenheimer.
The film releases nationwide on Friday, July 21.
Screenings for the IMAX 70-millimeter version playing in Grand Rapids have already sold out for Friday, Saturday and Sunday.
"You're not going to experience this in this way with any other medium," Jesse Forquer, director of technology for Celebration Cinema, told FOX 17 Wednesday.
“This is the format that the director intends it to be shown in, and it's very special."
We were given a behind-the-scenes look at the elusive IMAX film reels — the three-hour film is made up of three massive film reels.
When the reels are put together on a projection plate, they weigh over 600 pounds.
“It is roughly 11 miles long," Forquer said Wednesday.
"So, picture it stretching from here [GR North] to about the Grand Rapids airport when it's fully unrolled.”
Screening a film like this in 2023 is quite the undertaking, as most films these days are distributed to theaters in a digital format.
“Normally, now in our digital age, we get a movie that we almost download like a computer file, and we ingest it into our projector network, our theater management system, and then that distributes that content out to our projectors,” Forquer explained.
The IMAX screen at Celebration Cinema Grand Rapids North is 52 feet high and 70 feet wide. This special cut of Oppenheimer will fill that entire on-screen space.
A 70-millimeter frame itself is about ten times bigger than a standard-sized frame.
You can find the latest details on tickets and future IMAX screenings at their website HERE.
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