'The Odyssey' is screening at 3 a.m. in San Francisco. It's nearly sold out. - California News Beep

Fans clamoring for a chance to see Christopher Nolan’s “The Odyssey” on the city’s biggest screen are desperate enough to stay up into the wee hours. San Francisco’s Metreon is showing the film nearly around the clock. The screenings begin at 2 p.m. on July 16, but starting July 17, the theater will open for showings starting at 7 a.m. and ending with one at 3 a.m. And tickets are moving, with only a handful of seats still available outside of the very front rows.

It may seem odd, given that there are plenty of seats available for 9:45 p.m. screenings at rival IMAX theater Apple Cinemas Van Ness (whose earliest 10 a.m. screenings have only sold a few tickets). But there’s a good reason that Metreon decided to operate on a 24-hour cycle. The movie is the first ever to be filmed entirely with IMAX cameras, and the theater has the rare distinction of screening a 70mm IMAX print of the movie. Tickets for the first daytime screenings of “The Odyssey” there sold out nearly a year in advance.

The Metreon is one of 24 theaters in the country blessed with the opportunity to screen the movie in the analog format. The closest other 70mm-equipped IMAX theater is in Dublin at the Regal Hacienda Crossings, followed by the Esquire IMAX Theatre in Sacramento. The Dublin theater is also showing the film in IMAX 70mm at 3 a.m.; however, fewer of these tickets have been sold, and there are more seats available for showings at more typical times, albeit still mostly in the front row.

On previous films, Nolan had used IMAX cameras for action scenes, but they were deemed impractical for more intimate scenes due to their loud volume. However, a new “blimp” casing surrounding the camera significantly decreased the noise, allowing for the IMAX format to be utilized in more intimate environments as well as grandiose landscapes.

“For me, it’s been my long-held dream I’ve had ever since I was about 16 years old, to do an entire film on IMAX,” Christopher Nolan said in a behind-the-scenes video from Universal Pictures. The video shows the massive cameras on location being carried by multiple people.

“It feels like you’re shooting a scene with, like, an SUV,” said Robert Pattinson in the video. Pattinson plays Antinous, alongside a star-studded cast that includes Matt Damon (Odysseus), Tom Holland (Telemachus), Anne Hathaway (Penelope), Lupita Nyong’o (Helen of Troy), Zendaya (Athena), Charlize Theron (Calypso) and more.

The 70mm IMAX version of the film will be presented in a taller 1.43:1 aspect ratio, nearly square, filling the entirety of the IMAX screen for a maximum sense of immersion. For some fans, that’s worth staying up very late for.

‘The Odyssey’ is screening at 3 a.m. in San Francisco. It’s nearly sold out.

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