What 12 Years of Representing an IMAX Theatre Taught Me About Nolan’s Triumphant Use of the Medium for The Odyssey
It’s been heartwarming to see the IMAX 70mm moviegoing experience shine and draw in millions to experience Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey this week, as he intended. The excitement around IMAX this week reminded me of a chapter of my career that shaped how I think about the moviegoing experience. I spent more than a third of my career working with the Esquire IMAX Theatre, a corporate-owned and operated theatre, one of just 41 still operating worldwide, and just 25 in the U.S., with a projector that runs 70mm film.
After LinkedIn News featured my perspective in the discussion earlier this week, I found myself reflecting on my experience helping promote The IMAX Experience. Working with IMAX was a dream for a movie buff like me, someone who always dreamed of being a filmmaker. Representing it and helping build the reputation of one of the company’s flagship theatres was an honor, which makes seeing that experience resonate with a new generation and new audiences so special.
I worked closely with GM Doug Link and his team from the onset of construction and transformation of a 1940s movie house into the state-of-the-art IMAX theatre with the marquee (and heart) of a theatre from Hollywood’s heyday. From hosting a media event for when the 60 ft. by 80 ft screen was raised to the installation of the Volkswagen-size projector that had to be hoisted through a design element to reach the 2nd floor, we built such anticipation in the community that we were honored to be recognized for the grand opening campaign by PRSA with a Silver Anvil Award in 2000.
In those early days, IMAX theatres exclusively showed documentary films by legends like Director Greg MacGillivray and Brad Ohlund of MacGillivray-Freeman Films (Everest), Howard and Michele Hall (Deep Sea 3D), and James Cameron. It was amazing to have spent time with each of those legends on media junkets (all but Cameron). But I did have to quickly whip up a press release for James Cameron’s Ghosts of the Abyss, distributed by Disney, as apparently no one on that team had drafted one just two weeks before the opening! Disney ended up using my release for the ongoing film distribution.
We had interesting challenges in those early years due to distribution rules. IMAX started showcasing Hollywood films more often after Apollo 13 in 2002. However, the Esquire IMAX Theatre faced unique limitations. With a traditional theatre located just 10 blocks away, we were forced to hold off showing any non-documentary feature films for six to eight weeks before premiering them. We had to convince the public to come back to a movie theatre for a premium (a premium experience but also slightly pricier ticket at the time) up to two months after they saw it in a regular theatre.
For better or worse, we proved the model could work! Our numbers often were more successful than some theatres that had opened the same film on opening day. The proof was when we were granted the right to run a film on the original day and date of its release in 2007 with the opening of “300”. The film broke records in the format, reaching $20M in sales on the opening weekend, more than any previous 2D film. Sacramento’s theatre also broke records as one of the top five screens worldwide on opening weekend. It was incredible to see that pent-up demand in our market was realized.
Over the next five years, more movies were being digitized into the IMAX format (not always shot with IMAX cameras and films), but the IMAX documentary industry was contracting at the same time. All of this happened around the time of the Great Recession.
By 2012, I’d worked myself out of a consulting job, as with a new movie premiering nearly every weekend, a solo theatre couldn’t support the same level of promotional support. It was a tremendous amount of fun while it lasted.
That is why it feels so nostalgic to see audiences clamoring for IMAX tickets to The Odyssey. Walking into an IMAX theater and experiencing a film on that enormous screen has always been an exhilarating sensory experience. But Nolan has taken it even further by investing in shooting the entire epic on 70mm film, a rare accomplishment in recent years. I hope it inspires other filmmakers to explore this medium, as it is such a special, hidden gem for many. With audiences returning to movie theatres with more vigor in 2026 than a year ago. According to EntTelligence reporting in the Wall Street Journal, 312 million domestic tickets were sold through approximately June 21, 2026, translating to a seven percent increase in tickets sold compared to the same period in 2025.
Audiences are finally returning to enjoy movies in the way filmmakers dream of showcasing them, and I am here for Nolan leading the renaissance.
Now it is time for me to return to the Esquire IMAX Theatre, take my own seat, and enjoy The Odyssey, with buttered popcorn in hand, of course.