Ah, 70mm: the most grandiose iteration of the film format. Today, Warner Bros. announced that it will screen Christopher Nolan's Dunkirk on the cinephile-friendly format in over 125 theaters across the United States—the widest 70mm release in 25 years.
Nolan shot the WWII drama entirely on 65mm film, 75% of which was shot on IMAX film cameras. He used IMAX 65mm and 65mm large-format film stock with low-light sensitive Panavision and IMAX lenses.
Over the course of production, cinematographer Hoyte van Hoytema accomplished an incredible feat: he shot hand-held with IMAX cameras for the first time on a feature film.
Recently, Nolan told Entertainment Weekly: "Hoyte hand-held the [IMAX] camera for a few sections of Interstellar very effectively, and then on this, I had to break the news to him that he was going to be doing it for a massive amount of the film. We could get on a small boat with a number of characters and just shoot IMAX as if we were shooting with a GoPro camera."
"We shot IMAX as if we were shooting with a GoPro camera." —Christopher Nolan
Once, legendary films like Lawrence of Arabia and Ben-Hur screened widely in 70mm. But the last decade saw a mass conversion to digital projection systems; today, few theaters retain the technology. The process of installing or refurbishing 70mm projectors is a costly one, which Quentin Tarantino demonstrated with The Hateful Eight, a release that cost exhibitors a projected (pun intended) $8 million.
Dunkirk will screen on both 70mm and IMAX 70mm. Anton Volkov has put together a very handy guide to the various formats below, and scroll down for a list of theaters screening Dunkirk in 70mm. For more information and to purchase tickets, head over to the official Dunkirk website.
'Dunkirk' format guideCredit: Warner Bros
ALABAMA
IMAX Dome Theater (Birmingham)
US Space Center IMAX (Huntsville)
ARIZONA
AMC Westgate (Glendale)
Grand Canyon IMAX (Grand Canyon Village)
Harkins Tempe Marketplace (Tempe)
Loft (Tuscon)
BRITISH COLUMBIA
Cineplex Colossus IMAX (Langley)
Cineplex Park (Vancouver)
CALIFORNIA
AMC Burbank 16 (Burbank)
Century Daly City (Daly City)
Regal Hacienda 20 IMAX (Dublin)
ArcLight Hollywood (Hollywood)
Regal Irvine Spectrum IMAX (Irvine)
ArcLight 14 (La Jolla)
Grossmont Center 10 (La Messa)
Regal Long Beach Stadium (Long Beach)
Cinemark 18 (Los Angeles)
Landmark 12 (Los Angeles)
Regal Ontario Palace 22 IMAX (Ontario)
Sagewood Camelot (Palm Springs)
Esquire IMAX (Sacramento)
Tower Theatre (Sacramento)
AMC Mission Valley (San Diego)
AMC Metreon IMAX (San Francisco)
Cinemark San Francisco Center (San Francisco)
Century Oakridge (San Jose)
Hackworth IMAX (San Jose)
AMC Mercado (Santa Clara)
ArcLight Sherman Oaks (Sherman Oaks)
AMC Del Amo 18 (Torrance)
Cinemark Union City 25 (Union City)
AMC Citywalk IMAX (Universal City)
COLORADO
Regal Contiental (Westminster)
AMC Westminster 24 (Vancouver)
WASHINGTON D.C.
Regal Gallery Palace Stadium 24 (D.C.)
FLORIDA
Cinemark Palace (Boca Raton)
Coral Gables Art Cinema 1 (Coral Gables)
AMC Disney Springs 24 (Lake Buena Vista)
AMC Aventura (Miami)
Regal Waterford Lakes (Orlando)
AMC Veterans (Tampa)
AMC Parisian (West Palm Beach)
GEORGIA
Regal Atlantic Station (Atlanta)
Regal Mall of Georgia 20 (Buford)
IOWA
Sci Dome IMAX (Des Moines)
ILLINOIS
River East 21 (Chicago)
Keresotes Showplace Icon (Chicago)
Music Box (Chicago)
Cinemark Evanston (Evanston)
INDIANA
White River IMAX (Indianapolis)
KANSAS
AMC Town Center (Leawood)
LOUISIANA
AMC Elmwood Palace (New Orleans)
MASSACHUSETTS
AMC Boston Common (Boston)
Coolidge Corner 2 (Brookline)
Somerville 5 (Somerville)
MARYLAND
AFI Silver Theatre (Silver Spring)
AMC White Marsh (Baltimore)
Cinemark Egyptian (Baltimore)
Maryland Science Center IMAX (Baltimore)
MICHIGAN
AMC Livonia (Livonia)
AMC Forum 30 (Sterling Heights)
MISSOURI
OMNIMAX (St. Louis)
Marcus Ronnies (St. Louis)
NORTH CAROLINA
Discovery Place IMAX (Charlotte)
Regal Stonecrest (Charlotte)
AMC Southpoint (Durham)
NEW JERSEY
AMC Cherry Hill (Cherry Hill)
AMC Hamilton 24 (Hamilton)
AMC Garden State (Peramus)
NEW MEXICO
Cinemark Rio 24 (Albuquerque)
NEVADA
AMC Town Sqaure (Las Vegas)
NEW YORK
Alamo Drafthouse Downtown Brooklyn (Brooklyn)
Farmingdale 14 (Farmingdale)
Regal New Roc City (New Rochelle)
AMC Lincoln Square IMAX (New York)
City Cinemas East 86th St. (New York)
Cinema 1,2,3 (New York)
Village East 7 (New York)
Regal E-Walk Stadim (New York)
OHIO
Gateway Film Center 7 (Columbus)
Cinemark Valley View (Valley View)
ONTARIO
Cineplex Coliseum IMAX (Mississauga)
Cineplex Varsity 12 (Toronto)
Cineplex Colossus IMAX (Woodbridge)
OREGON
Hollywood 3 (Portland)
Regal Bridgeport (Tigard)
PENNSYLVANIA
AMC Neshaminy 24 (Bensalem)
Regal King of Prussia 15 IMAX (King of Prussia)
Tuttleman IMAX (Philadelphia)
AMC Waterfront (West Homestead)
QUEBEC
Cineplex Banque Scotia 12 (Montreal)
RHODE ISLAND
Providence Place IMAX (Providence)
SASKATCHEWAN
Regina IMAX (Las Vegas)
TENNESSEE
AMC Thoroughbred (Franklin)
Regal Pinnacle Stadium (Knoxville)
Regal Opry Mills 20 IMAX (Nashville)
TEXAS
Studio Movie Grill 9 (Arlington)
Alamo Drafthouse Ritz (Austin)
AMC Northpark 15 (Dallas)
Look 11 (Dallas)
Studio Movie Grill Royal Lane 9
Cinemark 17 IMAX (Dallas)
OmniaMAX Fort Worth (Fort Worth)
AMC Gulf Pointe (Houston)
Regal Edwards Freenway Grand Palace (Houston)
Cinemark Tinseltown (Pflugerville)
Cinemark West Plano (Plano)
Santikos Palladium 19 (San Antonio)
VIRGINA
AMC Hoffman Center (Alexandria)
AMC Tyson’s Corner (McLean)
WASHINGTON
AMC Pacific Place 11 (Seattle)
Cinerama (Seattle)
WISCONSIN
Marcus Majestic Cinema of Brookfield (Waukesha)
