One of the most highly-anticipated releases of the year, The Odyssey has been drawing Bengalureans to theatres for the last two weekends. But amid the excitement of a new Christopher Nolan epic, fans are also feeling the pinch of spending around `2,000 for tickets for an IMAX viewing experience. While for any other film, viewing it in IMAX would be the cherry on top of the cake, for The Odyssey, many feel it is essential as Nolan used state-of-the-art cameras from the multiplex chain to capture the scale of the story, even though only 41 theatres in the world can project it in its native 15/70mm format and India doesn’t have any such commercial theatre. Viewers who saw it elsewhere have even taken to the internet to point out comparisons – in some scenes, towering monsters’ heads are cut off, in others, characters faces are cropped closer. In the midst of this, we ask Bengalureans if skyrocketing prices are justified.
Premium pricing doesn’t kill cinema, it kills discovery. Premium should be a choice, not a toll. The moment every good screen in the city shifts to premium pricing, you haven’t upgraded the experience, you’ve simply removed the affordable seats. Give me one theatre with immaculate sound and a `250 ticket, and I’ll come back 40 times a year. Exhibition’s real business is frequency, not peak ticket prices. Right now, it’s optimising for the wrong number. The debate on the aspect ratio is both an artistic concern and a marketing conversation, and pretending otherwise is naive. Nolan composed for that frame. But the industry figured out scarcity is the best marketing budget you never spent. My only pushback is if 40 per cent of your meaning lives in the crop, the meaning wasn’t load-bearing enough. A great film should survive a phone screen and reward an IMAX one. That’s the craft.
I admire Nolan’s decision to shoot the film this way – filmmakers shouldn’t have to limit their creative vision just because technology isn’t widely available yet. That’s how the industry evolves, and even the version we got was still an incredible cinematic experience. But, when it comes to the execution, I hold the multiplex chains accountable. They have a responsibility to deliver a premium experience, yet audiences are paying for compromised projection, cropped frames and poor audio. It’s a running joke that movies never start on time because of all the ads, meaning you can leave home late, get stuck in traffic, and still not miss the opening scene. Charging Rs1,700– Rs 1,800 is simply not justified when the quality doesn’t match the price. Growing up, my family went to the movies regularly, but we eventually stopped because a single outing became too expensive. Even now as a student, my friends and I think twice before booking tickets because the cost, taxes, food, and travel add up so quickly, turning what used to be an accessible habit into a privilege.
Christopher Nolan creates movies specifically for the big screen, so I’m completely willing to pay for that experience. I side with the filmmakers on their choice to shoot in specialised formats like IMAX 70mm – they should be free to push technical boundaries and experiment with any format they choose. The responsibility lies squarely on the multiplex chains: if they are charging top prices, they need to ensure every screening meets those standards and communicate clearly to present the film as accurately as possible. Paying nearly Rs 2,000 isn’t what moviegoers want as a default norm for every release, but we’re willing to do it to experience a movie exactly as intended. While I would consider alternatives like local single screens or other formats depending on the movie, my ultimate priority will always be seeing an IMAX-scale film on the absolute best screen available.
Rs 1,800– Rs 2,000 for an IMAX ticket in Bengaluru is getting ridiculous. And now we have ‘picture perfect’ middle seats essentially charging people even more for the seats that actually give you the best viewing experience. I understand premium pricing, but at what point does entertainment become needlessly inaccessible? What surprises me even more is how easily we accept it. If people continue paying these prices without questioning them, theatres have absolutely no reason to lower them. Maybe the real problem isn’t just the pricing system. It’s how quickly we’ve normalised paying absurd amounts of money because of hype, FOMO, and opening-weekend culture. A movie should feel like entertainment, not a luxury purchase.
I can’t justify paying close to Rs 2,000 for one movie, regardless of whether it is IMAX or not. It is just a product of capitalism. I completely get why a filmmaker would want to shoot in IMAX, especially if they’re making something that is epic in scope. But I disagree with the company, which holds the rights to that format – you have to get the camera from them and every time someone pays for a ticket, they get a cut. As someone who watches a lot of world cinema, there are films in ratios like 1.33:1, 1.85:1, 2.35 to 1, etc. All of them get shown on a wide screen but letterboxed on the side. IMAX can do that without losing half the screen but they don’t so that it can only be shown in their theatres.
I watched The Odyssey twice, once in IMAX Koramangala and then in Dolby Cinema at AMB Kapali because I wanted to compare the two experiences. While IMAX became the default recommendation and drew the highest ticket prices (Rs 1,200), I actually found Dolby Cinema (Rs 700) to be the more immersive format. IMAX offered the expanded aspect ratio, but Dolby’s sound and overall presentation made for a more engaging experience, despite the fact that the expanded top/bottom footage was cut in Bengaluru’s scope DC screen. It shows that marketing often shapes perception. The Odyssey was positioned as a film that had to be seen in IMAX, but after watching both formats, I don’t think that was necessarily true. Bengaluru isn’t short on premium formats. Between IMAX, Dolby Cinema, 4DX, ScreenX, ICE and PVR Director’s Cut, audiences already have plenty of ways to upgrade their movie experience. The problem starts when premium formats are sold as the only way to watch certain films.