The extreme lengths woman went to watch The Odyssey in IMAX before second pregnancy
Topics: Christopher Nolan, Film and TV
Thomas Bamford
Featured Image Credit: Image credits: Universal Pictures
Topics: Christopher Nolan, Film and TV
Christopher Nolan's The Odyssey has sparked such a frenzy among moviegoers that some fans are rearranging their entire lives around getting a ticket to see it in IMAX 70mm, the highest-quality film format available, and for one woman, that meant delaying having a second child.
Amber Connaghan, a 29-year-old tech editor living in the California desert, bought her ticket to The Odyssey over a year in advance and is prepared to drive three hours to reach the nearest theater showing the film in the format, Connaghan told Variety.
She said a pregnant friend had recently urged her to start trying for a second baby, but she wasn't ready to risk the timing clashing with the movie's release.
"I was like, 'No, I have to wait a few months. Otherwise, it's going to be too close to The Odyssey,'" she said.
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Not every IMAX auditorium is equipped to screen film in the 70mm format, which is why fans have been crossing state lines and booking flights just to catch a screening in the highest possible quality.
Nolan shot the entire film using IMAX cameras, becoming the first director to do so for a full feature.
Healthcare consultant Tim McHugh, 33, is flying from Pittsburgh to Los Angeles with his brother to watch the film at Universal City Walk, turning what would usually be a baseball-focused road trip into a 'cinematic detour.'
He said he had wanted to experience an IMAX 70mm screening ever since seeing director Ryan Coogler discuss the format ahead of the release of Sinners.
Others have gone to similarly extreme lengths just to secure a ticket in the first place.
Universal, the studio distributing the film, released tickets a full year before release, and most screenings reportedly sold out within hours. A second batch went on sale in June, crashing ticket sites and leaving fans in hours-long queues.
Filmmaker Conrad Rothbaum, 35, described refreshing the ticket page alongside friends for what felt like an eternity before finally securing a seat.
"Finally, two of my friends texted me that they were done," he said.
"And when I saw those texts, I thought, 'Now is the time to log back in because all the reasonable people have given up,' and I got my ticket."
Meanwhile, recruiting consultant Spencer Frey, 27, skipped the website entirely and walked into a Manhattan AMC location on his lunch break, only to find 'pandemonium' among fellow fans battling for kiosk time.
Attorney Simon James, 33, has bought 18 separate tickets to IMAX 70mm screenings of the film across its first three weeks in theaters, calling Nolan his favorite director and insisting that "the experience of his films is exponentially elevated by viewing it in the right conditions."
For Connaghan, the appeal comes down to not wanting to miss out on a cultural moment.
"As soon as the tickets went on sale a year ago, I knew this was going to be something pretty special," she said. "I knew it was something I didn't want to miss."