r/Damnthatsinteresting • u/NoWork215 • Jul 16 '26

Video The Odyssey IMAX 70mm Setup

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u/mrASSMAN Jul 16 '26

IMAX branding has been licensed out.. most of the IMAX theaters you’re seeing aren’t true IMAX.. like in Seattle there’s probably a dozen “IMAX” but only 1 or 2 true IMAX

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u/aBunchOfSpiders Jul 16 '26

Well damn… I had no idea. I mean either way even if it’s not true IMAX the experience is still way better than going to see it in standard. The screen is twice as big and the sound is WAY better.

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u/mrASSMAN Jul 16 '26

Yeah it’s considered premium showing just not to the extent of a real IMAX setup which gets confusing because they use the branding which convinces most people that it’s the same

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u/SabreSour Jul 16 '26

I think we have a 35 mm near me. I wonder how they compare to the 70mm true iMax.

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u/Kaboose666 Jul 16 '26

The movie website has a cool tool you can use to see the frame differences

https://imgur.com/a/FCiXGlT

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u/excaliburxvii Jul 17 '26

Dolby wins for me because they actually make their format available to us plebs outside of very few, select, major metropolitan areas.

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u/Kaboose666 Jul 17 '26

Just be aware that not all Dolby Cinemas have the taller aspect ratio. Some of them are 2.39:1, not 1.85:1

Technically you get slightly better audio and contrast ratio than the IMAX release too since Dolby cinema has smaller screens while using the same basic projectors (meaning they can project more light onto a smaller space for higher contrast).

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u/excaliburxvii Jul 17 '26

I remember hearing about that. As much as I enjoy going to the theater all of this BS and opaqueness regarding formats and what you're actually seeing makes me feel better about them suffering.

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u/mrASSMAN Jul 16 '26 edited Jul 16 '26

70mm isn’t even peak IMAX, 140mm is the top format

But to answer question, the main thing for me is it’s way more detailed, higher resolution and brighter. And the frame shape is unique to the format (much taller than typical so it feels like it’s towering over you)

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u/_adanedhel_ Jul 16 '26

I mean that’s sort of confusing the matter further. It’s still 70mm film, just running horizontally rather than vertically.

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u/mrASSMAN Jul 16 '26

Hm is that right didn’t know that

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u/_adanedhel_ Jul 16 '26

Yep, here’s a visualization (left side, top two 70mm examples).