What exactly is 70mm print and why does anyone care?

Question

There has been a bit of controversy lately over the release of Tarantino's *Hateful Eight* movie. As I understand it, the movie was scheduled to play in a particular theater in Los Angeles that plays 70mm format. Disney chose to push/force/coerce/convince/whatever this theater into showing *The Force Awakens* instead.This has caused a rather large uproar from both Tarantino, as well as many of his fans.I will be honest, before I read this story I had never heard the term "70mm" before in my life; I only last week learned that there is a theater in my area that screens 70mm prints. Now I'm wondering what the big deal is, how these are any different from the versions shown at my usual theater, and why this format seems to have suddenly, out of nowhere (at least from my perspective) become a big deal.

Answer 1

It refers to the medium of the motion picture. Many of the big studios have gone fully digital by now, shooting their feature films on RED, Alexa, or the like. Likewise the final output is now often digital format as well. Most major cinemas and theaters have adopted some method of digital projection system by now, to keep up with the higher growing demand for 4K.

70mm is like the 4K of analog film. Before making the switch to digital, most major motion pictures were still being shot on 35mm or 70mm film. These labels refer to the actual width of the strip of film. 70mm, being twice as big as 35mm, is going to contain twice the amount of detail in the image. The film was probably shot on 70mm and is, in the same fashion, being projected in its original format on an actual film projector, rather than the digital projection systems most theaters use now.

A good analog would be music lovers who listen exclusively to vinyl records. It is believed by many in the film industry that analog film looks better than digital video because of the "flaws" inherent in the emulsion and grain. Both sides have their points, and the choice is very subjective.