Indianapolis is one of just a handful of locations across the country – and the world – that will show a unique 70-millimeter version of the film “Oppenheimer” starting this week.
Indiana’s State Museum is the only location in over 250 miles that can screen this select version of the film.
Officials with the State Museum say people are driving hundreds of miles to see the movie – which is about the creation of the atomic bomb – on film.
Neale Johantgen is the theater manager at the Indiana State Museum’s IMAX theater. He said as more movie theaters have moved toward digital screenings, fewer and fewer places are able to play movies on film.
“These locations that can support it are getting less and less, and prints get more and more expensive,” he said. “Take advantage while you can, is what I would say.”
According to Johantgen, the film is the longest to ever play at the IMAX. Specialty platters were reportedly built just to help feed the film into a projector.
“For our location, it came in nine boxes – it was in 53 pieces,” he said. “Our projectionist Wayne – over the course of three, three and a half days – assembled that into one 11-mile long, 600-pound print.”
The last movie released on film at the museum’s IMAX theater was “Tenet”. That movie was directed by Christopher Nolan – who also directed “Oppenheimer”.
According to Johantgen, ticket sales for “Oppenheimer” at the museum’s IMAX have outgrossed any other movie it has shown post-pandemic.
