We are only a little over a month away from seeing Christopher Nolan's Interstellar light up movie screens worldwide, and the excitement keeps mounting with each passing day. TV spots are starting to run, the TCL Chinese Theater is bringing back its IMAX film projector to accommodate the physical format that all of Nolan's films follow, and tickets are starting to go on sale. Which is how it's been discovered that the wait for Interstellar is going to be a little shorter than expected.
Update: Shortly after publishing this story, we received a press release from Paramount Pictures and Warner Bros. stating:
The highly anticipated INTERSTELLAR from Christopher Nolan will be released in 70mm IMAX® film, 70mm film and 35mm film formats on Wednesday, November 5th, two days ahead of its nationwide release. The advance showings will play in select theaters in more than 240 locations across the U.S. and Canada.On Wednesday, November 5th, 2014, "INTERSTELLAR" opens in the following film formats:- Select IMAX theaters will be offering The IMAX Experience® featuring 15 perf/70mm film projection which combines the brightest, clearest images at almost 10 times the resolution of standard projection formats, with powerful, laser-aligned digital sound and customized theatre geometry to create the world's most immersive movie experience. Select sequences will expand to fill the entire screen and will deliver unprecedented crispness and clarity.- INTERSTELLAR in the 70mm film format offers brighter, clearer image, with three times the resolution of standard projection formats, using the process of projecting light through celluloid to deliver clear images in rich analog color with state-of-the-art digital sound.- The 35mm film presentations project light through the 35mm frame to deliver clear, high resolution images with rich analog color combined with state-of-the-art digital sound in most locations.Tickets for these advance showings on November 5th are available today at https://interstellar.withgoogle.com and at participating theater box offices. Tickets are also available for the nationwide release on Friday, November 7th, 2014, when "INTERSTELLAR" opens in theaters everywhere including its digital engagements"
From Earlier: First Showing stumbled upon the official Interstellar listing for its opening week, and they've found showings scheduled a little earlier than expected. More like four days earlier than expected, as both the Universal City Walk and The Tech Museum Of Innovation in California have listings for showings as early as 8 PM on Tuesday, November 4th. While First Showing assumed that this was going to be an IMAX exclusive, we've done some digging and learned a couple more details about how you can see Christopher Nolan's latest mindblower.
While it looks like all formats are getting early access to Interstellar, the catch is that there are only limited locations that are gaining this early access. A quick MovieTickets.com search has yielded disappointing results for more local options to enjoy an early peek, and it also looks like this early release window is only for MovieTickets.com customers, as Fandango still lists the film for an early release on November 6th. So if you're a resident of say New Jersey, it looks like your only options for November 4th would be the various theaters in New York that are screening the film. In fact, it looks like all screenings for opening week are either unavailable for purchase at this time, or are already sold out, as there's nothing available for online purchase at this time. So if you're really interested in seeing Interstellar early, you're either out of luck, or your going to have to wait.
There's a bright side to all of this though, and that's the fact that Fandango has plenty of tickets available for traditional formats at the moment, and they haven't even listed their IMAX availability as of this writing. So you just might get to see Interstellar the way Christopher Nolan intended it to be seen on opening weekend. Which leaves us to wonder, why are some locations reporting early showings of Interstellar, and not others?
Well, we have a theory on that, and it's similar to how films are released around Oscar time. You see, films with a certain awards buzz among them will get an early, extremely limited release in cities like New York and Los Angeles, so critics and awards voters can get in on the action and hype up the appropriate films for the public to go and partake in during the full blown release. Since Interstellar undoubtedly cost a lot of money, and is definitely going to be an option for awards season this fall, it can be assumed that the studio has taken that strategy and is starting to test it out on tentpole films.
Everything about Interstellar seems experimental, and it's part of the allure the film holds on its potential fans. This is why an early release opportunity would be so awesome to be a part of, and yet it's also why said early release is undoubtedly very limited in its scope. So if you're interested in seeing Interstellar early, you'd better check your local theater, and jump on tickets while you can.
Interstellar opens early on November 4th, with a wide release starting as early as November 6th.
