Paul Thomas Anderson is back — and he’s bringing VistaVision with him.
The acclaimed director returns from a four-year hiatus after “Licorice Pizza” on Friday with “One Battle After Another.” The highly acclaimed modern epic stars Leonardo DiCaprio, uniting the actor and director for the first time after DiCaprio passed on the leading role of “Boogie Nights.”
As one of the most beloved directors of his generation teams up with one of the biggest movie stars of all time, “One Battle After Another” is being treated as a veritable event for film fans. With this event comes multiple premium formats.
The film world has been hit by something of a format craze in recent years, with auteur filmmakers promoting the optimal settings in which to see their latest movies. Directors like Christopher Nolan, Ryan Coogler, Quentin Tarantino and Brady Corbet have been vocal proponents of these formats, urging people to see their films the way they were meant to be seen.
Anderson also belongs among this list. Now, the director’s latest is available to screen in VistaVision, 70mm IMAX and more. In fact, the official “One Battle After Another” account on X has released a “One Format After Another” scorecard, encouraging fans to see the film in as many settings as possible. But where can you see these formats — and why should you?
What is VistaVision?
The headline of “One Battle After Another’s” multi-format madness is VistaVision. Audiences may have noticed that the film’s trailer and other pieces of marketing advertise that it is “Shot on VistaVision.” But why is this significant?
VistaVision is a high-resolution, widescreen format dating back to the 1950s. Films shot in VistaVision would place 35mm negatives horizontally rather than vertically, thus allowing for higher quality prints. This came up at the same time as formats like CinemaScope and Cinerama, part of a Hollywood push to create new kinds of exhibition in a bid to attract audiences.
VistaVision wasn’t long for this world — at least, at first. A series of films, such as “White Christmas” (the first VistaVision release), “The Man Who Knew Too Much,” “The Ten Commandments,” “Gunfight at the O.K. Corral” and “North by Northwest” shot in the format from its 1954 inception to its 1961 demise. After this, however, VistaVision largely disappeared for decades as other fine-grained options became industry standard. It remained in use for visual effects work and stray scenes, but never as the primary method of shooting for a film.
In the past year, however, VistaVision has made a comeback. Brady Corbet’s “The Brutalist” (shot by Lol Crawley) became the first film since 1961 to use VistaVision for the majority of the shooting process. A number of other movies soon followed, including Yorgos Lanthimos’ “Bugonia,” Emerald Fennell’s “Wuthering Heights” and the Narnia sequences in Greta Gerwig’s upcoming “The Magician’s Nephew” adaptation.
While “The Brutalist” was only shot on VistaVision (and was projected at a handful of theaters in 70mm), “One Battle After Another” will be the first film in decades to also be projected in VistaVision. The most recent film to be shot and projected in Vistavision (which Anderson has said is the optimal way to view the “One Battle After Another”) was 1961’s “One-Eyed Jacks.”
“VistaVision was a format that was invented to try to figure out how to use more of a larger portion of the 35mm camera negatives. So, in other words, it is better,” Anderson said in a VistaVision explainer. “It gives you a very deep, rich, beautiful image. But it’s not entirely practical. It’s not as easy as shooting with a regular 35mm camera, so it went out of fashion in the early ’60s.”
Where can you watch “One Battle After Another” in VistaVision?
Unfortunately, there aren’t many theaters with the capability to project “One Battle After Another” in the true VistaVision format. In fact, there are only four theaters worldwide where audiences can buy tickets to see “One Battle After Another” projected this way.
Vista Theater (Los Angeles, CA)
Regal Union Square 17 (New York, NY)
Coolidge Corner Theater (Boston, MA)
Odeon Leicester Square (London, England)
Where can you watch “One Battle After Another” in IMAX 70mm?
Perhaps the buzziest format in the past few years has been IMAX 70mm. The format made waves during the release of films like “Oppenheimer,” with IMAX 70mm theaters across the country facing massive sellouts for the acclaimed film display.
Ryan Coogler’s “Sinners” similarly gained acclaim for its IMAX 70mm presentation. Ahead of the film’s release, Coogler famously took to YouTube to explain the pros and cons of different film formats and aspect ratios.
IMAX 70mm displays of “One Battle After Another” will be presented entirely in a 1.43:1 aspect ratio — a first for narrative features. While recent films like “Sinners” and “Mission: Impossible — The Final Reckoning” have notable aspect ratio shifts thrillingly incorporated into the action, “One Battle After Another” will maintain the 1.43:1 scope for its entire runtime.
“Enjoy IMAX’s Exclusive 1:43:1 Expanded Aspect Ratio for the entire duration of the film,” IMAX said. “That means from first frame to final credits, you’ll get to experience more picture.”
This 1.43:1 display is a close comparison to the 1.50:1 aspect ratio of VistaVision presentations. While IMAX 70mm is likewise tough to find, there are a few more theaters projecting “One Battle After Another” — 10 in total.
Cinemark Dallas IMAX (Dallas, TX)
AutoNation IMAX (Fort Lauderdale, FL)
Indiana State Museum (Indianapolis, IN)
Regal Edwards Irvine Spectrum 21 (Irvine, CA)
BFI IMAX (London, England)
AMC Lincoln Square 13 (New York, NY)
AMC Metreon 16 (San Francisco, CA)
Harkins Arizona Mills 18 (Tempe, AZ)
AMC Universal Citywalk 19 (Universal City, CA)
Cineplex Vaughan IMAX (Woodbridge, Ontario)
How else can I see “One Battle After Another”?
The most widespread film projection of “One Battle After Another” will be a standard 70mm projection. 19 theaters worldwide will present “One Battle After Another” in this wide high-resolution format. You can check your local theaters on ticket sites like to see if any projections of “One Battle After Another” on 70mm are playing near you.
Obviously, the most common formats for “One Battle After Another” will be IMAX digital and standard digital. The film will be available in theaters nationwide starting Friday, Sept. 25.
In comparison to 70mm IMAX and VistaVision, standard 70mm projections will have an aspect ratio of 1.85:1, digital IMAX is presented in 1.90:1, and a standard Digital Cinema Package (DCP) projection will be 1.85:1. You can check out a format guide for the film below.
