Oppenheimer: IMAX Tracked Down Viral Front-Row Superfan

Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer has been one of the most anticipated movies of the year, so when tickets for the movie went on sale last month, fans were quick to snag some of the best seats in the house. While the front row isn’t typically a go-to spot for audiences, one fan went viral on social media, as a ticketing chart for the opening-night screening of the movie in IMAX showed a single front-row seat had been purchased at the Universal Cinema AMC at CityWalk Hollywood, with that fan’s love of cinema being rewarded with a limited-edition IMAX print. The official IMAX Instagram account shared the story of tracking down the fan, which you can check out below. Oppenheimer is in theaters now.

Tracking down the fan was a relatively easy ordeal, as IMAX knew where they would be and when, merely having to head to seat A15 for the 9:45 p.m. showing. Despite IMAX theaters being known for offering audiences an immersive experience no matter where they sit, the Instagram video details how the fan always selects this seat for screenings, regardless of how popular a screening might be.

This is only one piece of viral news surrounding the release of Oppenheimer in premium formats. 

Standard screenings for the film are already popular enough, but with Nolan utilizing 65mm film optimized for 70mm IMAX screenings, audiences are hoping to witness the experience as the filmmaker intended. Throughout the U.S., there are fewer than 20 theaters in which you can see Oppenheimer on 70mm IMAX film, and with the film’s three-hour run time, there are only a handful of screenings a day. Next month, Oppenheimer will lose IMAX screens to films like Gran Turismo and Blue Beetle, with the film selling out screenings over the next few weeks, resulting in some fans selling tickets on eBay for hundreds of dollars.

Dating back to The Dark Knight, Nolan has shot key sequences in his films with IMAX cameras, but with Oppenheimer utilizing both color and black-and-white photography, Kodak had to develop black-and-white film specifically for the experience. Since the format was developed to offer the most vivid experience possible, black-and-white film was never crafted for the format, though Nolan stylized the film to differentiate the perspectives of the characters in the movie.

Oppenheimer is in theaters now.

Did you see the film in IMAX theaters? Let us know in the comments!