The Alex Theatre in Glendale will keep screening Christopher Nolan’s “The Odyssey” in 70mm through August 20, the historic venue announced Tuesday, after ticket demand outpaced every other theater in the country running the format. The extension caps a run that began July 17 and turned the 1,300-seat movie palace into an unlikely box office leader, outperforming larger commercial chains equipped with the same rare film projection technology.
The engagement carries extra weight for the Alex. Before “The Odyssey,” the theater had not hosted a first-run studio release since “Terminator 2: Judgment Day” in 1991, a 35-year gap that ended only after a compressed, five-week systems upgrade installed a new 70mm projector ahead of Nolan’s release. Artistic director Miles Williams credited moviegoers for reviving that legacy, thanking Angelenos for filling seats and Universal Pictures for choosing the venue as a launch partner.
Nolan shot the mythic retelling of Homer’s epic entirely on 65mm 15-perf film, the same large-format process he used for “Oppenheimer,” and has pushed hard for audiences to see it on physical prints rather than digital projection. That preference has created scarcity nationwide. Only 25 U.S. theaters can run true 70mm reels of the film, and just 41 exist worldwide, forcing dedicated fans to travel and book weeks ahead.
Universal and IMAX responded to the same surge in demand by pushing back the broader IMAX 70mm run from August 19 to September 16, giving audiences in cities without specialty houses like the Alex extra weeks to find a seat before “Resident Evil” claims IMAX screens on September 18.
The film stars Matt Damon as Odysseus alongside Anne Hathaway and Tom Holland, with Emma Thomas and Nolan producing through their Syncopy banner. For theaters like the Alex, built in 1925 and known for its Greek and Egyptian architectural details, the extended run has become as much about proving old projection booths can still draw a crowd as about the film itself.
