A day after a tornado damaged the Santikos Palladium theater, which has one of two IMAX theaters in San Antonio playing director Christopher Nolan’s new movie “The Odyssey,” technical difficulties canceled screenings of the movie at AMC Rivercenter, the second IMAX theater.
The Rivercenter theater is one of only two in Texas that has a 70mm IMAX film projector. “The Odyssey” is the first movie to be shot entirely with a large-format IMAX camera.
Repairs at the Palladium were completed in time for the movie’s Thursday evening opening, but screenings at the Shops at Rivercenter theater downtown have for now been halted through at least Wednesday.
A theater employee confirmed the cancellations on Friday and said technicians were working to resolve the issue.
On the social media platform Reddit, movie buffs started at least two threads Wednesday on the San Antonio subreddit to share their experiences.
One started with a notification the poster said they received from AMC Theatres that read, in part: “Due to a technical issue, the movie at AMC Ricercenter 11 has been cancelled.”
According to conversations on the other thread, which included a photo of what appeared to be a blank screen inside the theater, the 2 p.m. Thursday screening went off without a hitch, but the projector malfunctioned during the 6 p.m. screening. Several people posted that they had received cancellation notices for today’s screenings.
The next screening at AMC Rivercenter with tickets available for sale is 3:15 p.m. Thursday.
Three years ago, virtually the same thing happened on the opening weekend of Nolan’s award-winning movie “Oppenheimer.” Multiple screenings were canceled because of technical difficulties with the IMAX projector at Rivercenter AMC early in the movie’s run.
Eventually the problems with the projector were resolved and screenings continued.