The 1940s marked the peak of Hollywood's Golden Age in the United States, when movie theaters were known as 'palaces' due to their grand size. However, with the rise of television in the following decade, the film market faced a crisis, as many people began preferring to watch movies at home.
Faced with declining box office revenue, Hollywood sought ways to make going to the cinema a unique experience. The main strategy involved increasing the projected image area by using more panoramic and immersive screens. At that time, both cinema and TV operated on the 4:3 aspect ratio (or 1.33:1).
Initially, films were analog, recorded on film, with the most common standard being 4 perf, where each frame was 35mm wide and had four perforations. These perforations allowed cameras and projectors to engage and run the film vertically.
With 4 perf, filmmakers could capture the 1.33:1 proportion. To improve this, the film underwent significant modifications. In 1954, Paramount introduced VistaVision (1.50:1), changing the 35mm film from vertical orientation to horizontal, enlarging the image. The following year, Mike Todd innovated with Todd-AO (2.20:1), which used a wider 65mm film.
Since these new formats could not be reproduced on televisions, cinema screens began to adapt. Experiments continued, such as in 1967, when Graeme Ferguson screened a documentary on 11 screens at a fair in Canada, and Roman Kroitor presented a film on five simultaneous screens in a cross shape.
However, the multi-screen concept proved impractical. Ferguson and Kroitor concluded that the ideal solution to achieve the desired effect would be a single giant screen, leading to the emergence of Multiscreen, now known as IMAX (the name given to the format and the IMAX Corporation responsible for it).
The IMAX proposal was to rotate the 65mm film horizontally, resulting in an aspect ratio of 1.43:1. This definition is equivalent to 18K, ten times larger than a 35mm film and three times larger than vertically shot 65mm films.
An important differentiator of IMAX is that, due to its dimensions, scenes captured in open shots resemble human visual perception. According to researcher and filmmaker Pablo Savalla, in his book The Overwhelming Power of Cinema, this aspect generates more realistic and immersive images, even if unconsciously.
Currently, IMAX offers one of the best combinations of sound and image available on the market. However, its performance is linked to handling complexity: the use of such a large film requires a heavier, larger, and more expensive camera.
Each roll of IMAX film lasts only three minutes, contrasting with 35mm cameras that can run for more than ten minutes on the same roll. In addition to the constant difficulty of film changes, there are high material costs; it is estimated that one minute filmed on IMAX film can cost US$ 2,000.
Another historical obstacle for IMAX cameras is the loud noise generated when pulling the huge film. Although many analog cameras are noisy, most use blimps, acoustic isolation boxes. For a long time, there was no blimp for IMAX, making it unfeasible to record sound and image simultaneously. Thus, the format was restricted to productions that did not require this joint capture, such as nature documentaries.
During the 1970s and 1980s, without commercial appeal in Hollywood, IMAX found a niche in museums and cultural institutions, with custom-built theaters in the United States and Canada.
Due to its expanded ratio, showing IMAX films in conventional theaters means losing a large part of the extra image area. While a common theater has a width of 20 meters by a height of 12 meters, IMAX theaters have a minimum width of 22 meters by a height of 16 meters, and can be even larger, exceeding 35 meters in width.
The IMAX Corporation strictly supervises all IMAX theaters, which must meet specific quality standards. The screens are slightly curved to enhance immersion, and the company has an exclusive sound system, in addition to a dedicated projector to run the 70mm film (the 65mm film receives an additional 5mm in post-production for the soundtrack).
The arrival of digital cinema in the 1990s changed the market dynamic. The new technology enabled lighter, high-quality, and silent cameras, quickly becoming more accessible. As the industry was about to abandon film, IMAX had to adapt.
Under the management of new investors, the company convinced Hollywood studios to shoot blockbusters in IMAX, despite the high technological cost and the limitation of suitable theaters. The solution was to invest in adaptations for digital formats. In 2002, IMAX DMR (Digital Media Remastering) emerged, which allows converting any film, whether digital or 35mm film, to the IMAX 70mm format.
Just as TV drove new formats onto cinema screens, DMR allowed the company to expand. The screening of hits like Apollo 13, Star Wars, Matrix, and Harry Potter in IMAX encouraged the opening of new theaters. By September 2007, there were already 296 IMAX theaters operating in 40 countries.
Not everyone accepted the shift to digital. Directors such as Steven Spielberg, Quentin Tarantino, Christopher Nolan, and Paul Thomas Anderson maintained a preference for film. This attachment has technical foundations: digital images are formed by fixed pixels, while the basis of film consists of silver grains that chemically record the image upon contact with light, presenting millions of randomly distributed grains of varying sizes.
The grain gives the footage a more organic aesthetic in contrast to the precision of digital, which is seen as an advantage by many artists. Luiz Gonzaga De Luca, former president of Cinépolis in Brazil, stated that 'film has a coloration, a way of portraying things completely different. There is a purism, a question of movement and texture precision. In fact, it is a cultural issue, but having an image with grain is a preciousness that everyone loves.'
However, many filmmakers opt for digital due to ease of use and lower cost. Marcelo Lima, a film industry consultant and founder of Expocine, argues: 'I agree with the superiority of shooting on 70mm film. But, besides that, I think shooting on film is a bit of nostalgia, of not surrendering to technology.' He emphasizes that 'what matters is a film made with a good photographer and production team. [...] The reality is that we need to tell stories at a reasonable cost for the market to function.'
It is important to note that digital projectors brought environmental benefits (eliminating the transport of tons of film) and benefits for employees. In the 1970s and 1980s, film projectors in Brazil caused work accidents by using carbon rods, which generated a luminous electric arc; these were replaced by lamps, reducing accidents but maintaining operational difficulty.
Christopher Nolan, a strong advocate of analog cinema, adopted IMAX as his favorite. In 2008, he shot 28 minutes of Batman: The Dark Knight in IMAX cameras for Warner Bros., being one of the first blockbusters shot in the format, which increased the company's visibility.
Nolan influenced other directors to use IMAX, applying the technology in much of his films, especially in action scenes with little dialogue. The use of this large format aims to bring the audience back to cinemas, replicating the phenomenon of the 1950s, although today TV has an even stronger competitor in streaming. IMAX's bet lies in the screen size and immersion to guarantee the viewer's choice.
Nolan broke his contract with Warner after the company decided to release simultaneous premieres in cinema and streaming in 2021, moving to Universal and shooting 70% of Oppenheimer (2023) in IMAX.
To realize the project of filming The Odyssey entirely in IMAX, the issue of sound needed to be resolved. IMAX, in collaboration with Nolan, developed the Keighley camera, which is lighter and 30% quieter. However, to record scenes with audio, a blimp was created, the isolation box that definitively eliminated noise.
The premiere of The Odyssey took place in July, with almost three hours of duration, and its box office exceeded US$ 1 billion in September. However, most of the public did not watch the film as planned by Nolan.
In 1967, IMAX was created in Canada. Currently, only 41 IMAX theaters worldwide have 70mm analog projectors, achieving an aspect ratio of 1.43:1 and 18K resolution. Other IMAX theaters use digital projectors, with an aspect ratio of 1.90:1, which cuts part of the original framing.
In Brazil, all 12 IMAX theaters are digital. Watching The Odyssey in Los Angeles costs US$ 30 (about R$ 150), while in a digital IMAX theater in São Paulo, a Saturday costs about R$ 90.
Marcelo Lima comments that 'Making a film in IMAX is very expensive. Having IMAX theaters is also. Someone has to pay the bill somehow, and that's why the ticket is more expensive.'
Experts predict an increase in demand for larger screens after The Odyssey, but the opening of new theaters in Brazil will not be immediate. The cost of implementing an IMAX theater is even higher in Brazil and other Latin American countries due to the value of the dollar. Furthermore, the operation functions as a franchise, requiring the exhibitor to follow IMAX rules, including programming and revenue sharing.
Lima concludes: 'IMAX is a good audience attractor, but from an economic return point of view, it is risky.' He adds that 'All IMAX solutions in Brazil have had some subsidy, whether a partnership with the shopping center itself or some sponsor. Opening an IMAX theater today is an account that doesn't balance. Logically, The Odyssey made things grow, but the reality is that the implementation cost does not cover the result.'
