Cinemas Are Already Upgrading to Prepare for Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey

Tell me, O muse, of that ingenious hero who travelled far and wide after he had released the famous movie of Oppenheimer. Many theaters did he visit, and many were the cineplexes with whose manners and customs he was acquainted; moreover he suffered much by digital projectionists while trying to save cinema and bring his vision safely home.

That hero, of course, is Christopher Nolan, who has become a household name multiple times over, thanks to The Dark Knight trilogy, Inception, Oppenheimer, and more. Nolan is not just the rare filmmaker who can sell a project just by signing his name to it; he’s also an autuer witih a specific vision, and that vision is big. IMAX big, in fact, the widescreen film format that he has been championing since The Dark Knight.

Nolan is using his pull to finally create the first feature film shot entirely on IMAX with The Odyssey, his big screen adaptation of Homer’s epic. The Odyssey doesn’t hit theaters until summer 2026, but cinemas are already preparing. According to Variety, the Cinemark theater chain is adding 70 mm screens to several of its theaters in North and South America.

“Under a new agreement that expands the partnership between the theater chain and the technology company, Cinemark will build three new 70mm film projection systems and four new IMAX with Laser systems in the United States,” the trade paper reports. “Cinemark will also upgrade its remaining 12 IMAX screens to IMAX with Laser, a 4K laser projection system developed to deliver the clearest images and best audio through proprietary technology.”

Given the success of Nolan’s work, it does make good financial sense for theater chains to try to please him. All of his movies have been box office hits, including Tenet, which not only was met with middling reviews but also released during the pandemic. And sometimes, his movies are culture-defning events that win major awards. Nolan has long been a proponent of preserving the medium by refusing to switch from film to digital and of pushing it forward by using 70mm and IMAX formats.

Nolan isn’t alone. Quentin Tarantino has released movies such as Once Upon a Time… In Hollywood in 70mm IMAX, as has Paul Thomas Anderson. In fact, Anderson’s much-acclaimed, but perhaps financially disappointing, latest release One Battle After Another played on 70mm in the few theaters equipped to show it.

As highly anticipated as those releases were, not even they can match the excitement building up for The Odyssey. Nolan has assembled an all-star cast for his project, including Matt Damon as the shipwrecked warrior Odysseus, Tom Holland as his dutiful son Telemachus, and others such as Zendaya, Anne Hathaway, and Robert Pattinson in undisclosed roles.

Will that be enough to turn the tide of streaming and digital goop, making the theatrical experience legendary once again? It’s too soon to tell, but if Nolan can pull it off, then he truly will be an ingenious hero, worth all of the Muses’ praise.

The Odyssey plays on the biggest of big screens on July 17, 2026.