For Patrick Tomasso, seeing one of his favorite films, Interstellar, on the big screen again was worth the approximately 350-mile trek and 6 a.m. international flight.
The film influencer and cinematographer from Toronto claimed to have seen Christopher Nolan’s sci-fi epic hundreds of times since its premiere ten years ago. But Tomasso knew he would stop at nothing to get a ticket when the movie’s distributor, Paramount Pictures, announced it would be rereleased on a few screens. To watch it at the nearest theater having an IMAX screening, even if it meant making the extremely short journey across the border to New York.
Tomasso remarked, “Look what everyone did for Taylor Swift,” alluding to the throngs of admirers who flew all over the world to witness the pop star’s most recent, record-breaking, world tour. I’m on an Eras Tour.
Set in a future Earth that is becoming uninhabitable, Interstellar follows farmer and former NASA pilot Joseph Cooper (played by Matthew McConaughey) and his team as they look for a new planet where humanity can live. When the Oscar-nominated movie came out in 2014, it was a commercial success, grossing over $730 million worldwide.
The movie’s restricted rerelease is now helping it even more. All IMAX screenings sold out last weekend, bringing in $4.5 million over 166 screens. According to Variety, tickets were selling for as much as $215 per seat on some secondary online marketplaces.
Rereleasing a movie in theaters is nothing unusual, but Interstellar’s recent success shows that both audiences and distributors are becoming more interested in such occurrences. To help fill seats, many smaller theaters frequently screen rereleased films. Studios and exhibitors used a similar tactic in the wake of the conflicting Hollywood strikes and the pandemic before that.
According to a recent Variety report, at least 27 classic films were rereleased in 2024 into more than 100 US theaters, and in many cases, more than 1,000, with a total gross of more than $90 million.
Coraline, a stop-motion animated dark fantasy horror movie that made $53 million when it was rereleased this summer, was one of the most prominent examples. On Halloween, it made a third appearance in theaters in newly remastered 2D and 3D forms because its rerelease was so successful.
Interstellar’s tenth anniversary coincides with its rerelease. During CinemaCon, an annual film industry conference, in April, Paramount Pictures announced the picture’s theatrical rerelease following Nolan’s Oppenheimer’s success at the 2024 Academy Awards. Variety earlier claimed that Paramount collaborated with Warner Bros. Pictures, the film’s co-producer, on the revival.
The announcement sparked immediate enthusiasm, especially among Nolan’s ardent supporters who have long respected his commitment to putting the theatrical experience first. His 2008 film The Dark Knight received praise for being one of the first studio productions to use IMAX cameras in part.
Natalie Fernandez was among the viewers who did not see Interstellar in theaters the first time around. “I’ve always wanted to see it in IMAX,” remarked the research coordinator from Miami.
Fernandez, who posted a video on TikTok of her first time viewing it in an IMAX last weekend, said, “A friend told me I can’t experience it on a TV screen or a laptop screen.” It simply isn’t comparable.
“Not to be dramatic, but seeing Interstellar in an IMAX is a life-changing experience,” the writing atop her video said. She explained in her caption, “I fear no other movie will ever top this.” The tears didn’t stop.
However, Nolan recently told The Associated Press that he was “so gratified by the response.”
He told the outlet, “It’s really exciting when people react to your work at any point.” However, ten years later, to have new viewers arrive and enjoy it as we had originally envisioned on the large IMAX screens, especially those IMAX film prints? Seeing that it still has vitality is quite satisfying.
The ardent moviegoer Tomasso stated that he already had tickets for the rerelease of Se7en, directed by David Fincher and scheduled to come out in January, around its 30th anniversary.
“The theater is one of our last religious experiences where we can sit down in a dark room, nothing else matters for those two hours,” Tomasso stated in response to a question about why he believes rereleases are becoming so popular.
He continued, “I sincerely hope we can hold onto that.”
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