MIAMI — Movie fans have been setting off on long journeys of their own to see “The Odyssey,” the hit Christopher Nolan film based on Homer’s ancient Greek epic, in the director’s preferred format: IMAX 70 mm.

Tens of thousands of them, from faraway lands such as Atlanta and even Latin America, have landed in Fort Lauderdale, home of the only movie theater in the state that offers the rare, immersive viewing experience on a six-story-high screen.

“When you want to see a really big film like this, this is where you come,” said David Neal, 53, who traveled from Orlando to Fort Lauderdale for Friday afternoon’s sold-out screening.

The AutoNation IMAX 3D Theater at the Museum of Discovery and Science, which opened in 1992, is one of just 25 active IMAX 70 mm theaters in the country. Worldwide, only about 40 theaters offer the format.

The blockbuster, the first feature film to be filmed entirely on IMAX film cameras, has broken records since it released in theaters July 17. And it’s been a gift from the gods for MODS. The theater has already sold 55,500 tickets for the film and is on track to beat its own record of 57,200, set in 2009 by James Cameron’s “Avatar.”

When tickets for the film first dropped last year, museum CEO Joseph Cox said tickets sold out so fast, he couldn’t even get one for himself. He had to wait for another round to drop. The film’s run at MODS has been extended until Sept. 16, but tickets are going fast.

Cox said he’s met moviegoers who drove from Atlanta and flew in from Chile and the Bahamas to "be part of this cultural moment.”

“It’s almost like going to a concert. You want to be part of this whole crowd, to be immersed in this experience,” Cox said. “As a science museum that has this incredible theater, our mission has always been connecting people to inspiring science. With the IMAX, we’re inspiring curiosity about filmmaking. We’re inspiring curiosity about this amazing technology.”

But what makes IMAX 70 mm so special that people are willing to travel internationally to see it?

For starters, the AutoNation IMAX 3D Theater’s screen is cyclops-sized — 65 feet tall and 85 feet wide. The visuals are crystal clear and the sound is immersive. Cox compared it to listening to a symphony in person instead of a song on your phone speakers.

The promotional website for “The Odyssey” includes a section where viewers can watch the trailer in several available formats, and it refers to IMAX 70 mm as the “largest and highest-resolution format available.”

Working with IMAX 70 mm, both for filming and projecting, is very technically difficult and expensive. The IMAX company developed a a new camera to complete the Herculean task of filming an entire movie with one. New IMAX 70 mm projectors haven’t been made in about 50 years, and parts needed to build these film projectors “simply no longer exist,” Variety reported. At MODS, highly skilled specialists work hard to maintain and operate the museum’s IMAX 70 mm projector, Cox said.

70 mm film, much larger than standard 35 mm film, captures images at the equivalent of 18K resolution, “fundamentally, spectacularly better” than the typical 4K resolution, Cox explained.

“I’m so grateful to the people that most of our visitors don’t get to see, who are the amazing projectionists. These are people who have trained for years to be able to run this incredibly complex, difficult to maintain piece of equipment,” Cox said. “We’ve focused on really preserving this capability because we believe that important technologies shouldn’t just disappear.”

Clearly, audiences appreciate the craftsmanship.

Cox said people show up to wait in line at MODS, where the movie theater seating is not assigned, hours ahead of showtime to get a good seat. Neal, the Nolan fan from Orlando, arrived to the theater at 10 a.m. to be first in line for general admission for the 1:30 p.m. showtime. (The theater also offers priority seating at an extra cost.)

Moviegoers in Orlando used to be able to watch films in this format, but the IMAX 70 mm projector at a local IMAX theater has been broken for years, he said. Neal was one of more than 1,400 people who signed an online petition urging Regal Pointe Orlando to fix it. He also came to the MODS theater before to see “Oppenheimer” on IMAX 70 mm. For film buffs like Neal, it’s worth the trip.

“[The screen] is huge, but it’s more than just that. It’s the picture quality, the color depth. There’s a warmth to it because it’s film,” he said. “It feels great. It’s a wonderful experience.”

Further down in line on Friday, Anika Samayoa, 25, and Devon Schumbeno, 24, said they took the Brightline from Orlando to meet with Broward friends at the theater. The group of friends took paid time off work to see the movie and spend the day together.

“We took an odyssey to come down and see ‘The Odyssey,’” Schumbeno joked.

They planned this for months, but the movie sold out, so they had to wait for another round of tickets to go on sale, Samayoa said. The friends wanted to both experience the movie the way the director intended and be part of a historic film moment in real life, not just wait for it to be available on streaming.

“It’s interesting because everybody’s streaming now, but I think people really do yearn for that experience of going somewhere and making an event out of either meeting up with friends or going by themselves just to watch a movie,” Schumbeno said. “I used to go watch movies in theaters completely by myself before COVID hit... Heartbreak feels good in a place like this.”

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