[Edaily Starin YUN GI BACK Reporter] Even for director Christopher Nolan, there was a barrier he couldn’t overcome. That barrier was not box office success or production costs, but the physical limitations of IMAX film.

With the runtime of *The Martian*, set to open on the 5th of next month, confirmed at 2 hours and 52 minutes, it has become a hot topic that Director Nolan initially prepared a cut exceeding three hours but had to drastically edit it down due to the physical limitations of IMAX.
In an interview with the film platform Letterbox, Nolan recalled, “It was a much longer version at first,” adding, “David Keighley from IMAX took me to the projection room after the screening and showed me firsthand that three hours was the limit.”
Keighley was IMAX’s Chief Quality Officer (CQO) who had worked with Nolan for many years. He was a key figure who collaborated on Nolan’s film projects, from *The Dark Knight* to *Oppenheimer* and *The Martian*. Keighley, who passed away last year, was honored with a tribute credit in the closing credits of *The Martian*.
Director Nolan revealed, “Over the years, I’ve asked them repeatedly to make the platters (the circular devices that wind the film) larger or to develop a new clip system that could hold longer rolls of film.”
But the answer was always the same: to screen a film exceeding three hours in IMAX 70mm, the projection system itself would have to be redesigned from scratch. Ultimately, Nolan decided, “Fine. I’ll make it under three hours.”
The process of shortening the runtime was no easy task either. Director Nolan revealed that he shot an enormous amount of footage for this film and spent a long time deliberating over which scenes to keep.
He explained that, together with editor Jennifer Lame, “we held fast to just one principle: ‘Is this scene absolutely necessary to the story?’” adding, “If it didn’t contribute to the story, we boldly cut it out—no matter how much effort had gone into filming it.” As a result, the final runtime was set at 2 hours and 52 minutes.

◇1.5 times the distance between Seoul and Busan… “The Odyssey,” completed with 609 km of film
“The Odyssey” is regarded as a project whose production process alone will go down in film history.
Based on Homer’s epic poem, this film is the first feature-length commercial movie in cinematic history to be shot entirely—100 percent—using IMAX 70mm film cameras. To achieve this, Director Nolan and IMAX jointly developed a new film camera that is lighter and quieter than previous models.
The scale of the shoot was also overwhelming. Filming took place over 91 days across more than 10 countries, including Italy, Scotland, Greece, and Morocco, and the amount of film used alone totaled approximately 2 million feet (about 609 km). This distance is roughly 1.5 times the distance between Seoul and Busan.
The production budget alone is reported to be approximately $250 million (about 360 billion won). Including marketing costs, the total budget for *Odyssey* is estimated to reach $375 million (about 554.9 billion won). It is the most expensive film in director Nolan’s filmography. Industry estimates place the break-even point at approximately $600 million (about 894 billion won).
Reflecting its massive production budget and unprecedented scale of filming, the film is performing strongly at the box office. “The Odyssey” grossed $124.5 million (approximately 182.6 billion won) in North America and $264.1 million (approximately 387.5 billion won) worldwide during its opening weekend, setting a new record for the highest-grossing opening among Nolan’s films.
Among movie fans, reactions to this case include comments such as, “In the end, even Nolan couldn’t overcome the physical limitations of IMAX.” Although Director Nolan has insisted on using film and the IMAX format even in an era where digital filming has become the norm, it appears that even his most ambitious project had to compromise in the face of the realities of the projection system. The resulting runtime of 2 hours and 52 minutes is not merely a number; it stands as the result of a compromise between cinematic ideals and technical reality.