65mm / 70mm Film 5-perf 65mm camera negative and 70mm release print (Todd-AO lineage)

What 65mm and 70mm film are

The two numbers describe two strips of film, not two formats. Cameras expose a 65mm negative, and labs print it onto 70mm stock for projection. The extra 5mm on the print held four magnetic stripes for six-channel sound in the original system. Each frame is five perforations tall, 23.8125 mm (15/16 in), which is why the system is also written 5-perf 65mm or 5/70. The projected Todd-AO frame measures 48.56 x 22.09 mm, a 2.20:1 aspect ratio.

How the format works

Kodak lists the 5-perf capture area at 52.15 x 23.07 mm, with 1,000 ft of film lasting 8 minutes 53 seconds at 24 fps. Standard 4-perf 35mm captures 24.90 x 18.70 mm. The 65mm frame is about 1,203 mm² against 466 mm², roughly 2.6x the negative area; Wikipedia says the negative area is "nearly 3.5 times" that of 35mm, so the multiple depends on which 35mm frame you compare against.

Todd-AO originally ran at 30 fps, 25% faster than the standard 24 fps, and switched to 24 fps after Around the World in 80 Days so 35mm reduction prints could be made. Wikipedia gives the Todd-AO camera aperture as 52.63 x 23.01 mm, close to Kodak's capture area, against a 48.56 x 22.09 mm projection frame. Handling matters as much as geometry: the ASC notes that standard 1,000 ft magazines run about 8 minutes at 24 fps, so The Hateful Eight crew built three 2,000 ft magazines for long takes (roughly 17 minutes each by Kodak's 8:53 per 1,000 ft). Sound used six magnetic channels, five behind the screen and one for surrounds, against four for CinemaScope. Dolby noise reduction arrived around 1976 and the six tracks were reallocated into what became the 5.1 layout. DTS digital sound-on-disc was later adapted to 70mm, but the format kept declining until directors revived it.

5/70 vs IMAX 15/70

IMAX 15/70 uses the same 65mm stock but pulls it horizontally through the camera, 15 perforations per frame. Kodak puts that capture area at 70.41 x 56.62 mm, about 3,987 mm², which is 3.3x a 5-perf frame, and 1,000 ft runs only 2 minutes 57 seconds at 24 fps. IMAX frames are tall (1.43:1), while 5/70 frames are wide (2.20:1). On a film that mixes both, as Oppenheimer did, the 5-perf sequences fill an IMAX screen side to side, and the 70mm 5-perf prints receive the IMAX scenes optically reduced and cropped top and bottom. See IMAX 15/70 film, IMAX expanded aspect ratio and IMAX.

Where 65mm and 70mm live

Features shot on 65mm in 5-perf, 15-perf or both include The Hateful Eight (2015), Dunkirk (2017), Tenet (2020), Oppenheimer (2023), Sinners (2025, mixed stocks) and The Odyssey (2026). Several 35mm productions were blown up to 70mm for release, including Inherent Vice, Phantom Thread, Licorice Pizza and The Brutalist. That last film was shot in VistaVision, and its exhibition options included 5-perf 70mm. Ultra-wide titles use Ultra Panavision 70, which squeezes a 65mm frame to a 2.76:1 print.

Venue counts are patchy. Engadget reported that only 30 theaters worldwide could show IMAX 70mm, and Cinemark was adding three more (Woodridge, Colorado Springs and Rochester) before The Odyssey's July 17, 2026 release. For 5/70, the in70mm tracker listed 20 initial venues for One Battle After Another against 10 IMAX 70mm and 4 VistaVision, and 5 initial U.S. venues for Sinners. For The Hateful Eight, about 100 theaters ran 70mm after roughly 120 used 70mm projectors were bought and upgraded. Quentin Tarantino led a campaign to equip 100 cinemas worldwide for that release. Sinners' later 70mm engagements ran as 30 dated entries at 17 venues across the U.S., Canada (Toronto's Revue) and the UK (London's Picturehouse Central). No source I loaded gives a current worldwide count of 5/70 venues, so treat any single number as a lower bound.

A listing should tell you three things: 5/70 or 15/70, whether the camera negative was 65mm or a 35mm blow-up, and the print's aspect ratio (2.20:1, 2.76:1 or 1.43:1).

Common confusions

70mm is not always IMAX. A "70mm" print may be 5-perf (2.20:1 or wider) or 15-perf (IMAX 70mm, 1.43:1). Check the listing; theaters advertise them separately.

65mm is the negative, 70mm is the print. A film "shot on 65mm" can be shown on 35mm, DCP or 70mm. A film "shown in 70mm" may have been shot on 35mm and blown up.

A blow-up is a print format, not a negative. Inherent Vice, Phantom Thread and Licorice Pizza were blown up from 35mm to 70mm prints. The image on those prints still originates on 35mm, while The Hateful Eight and Oppenheimer originated on 65mm.

30 fps is history. Original Todd-AO ran at 30 fps, but the format changed to 24 fps after Around the World in 80 Days, and current 5/70 releases run at 24 fps like any other film.

Digital IMAX is not film. IMAX digital and laser screens use their own projectors, and IMAX 70mm prints exist only in the small film-equipped set.

65mm and 70mm at home

No home format uses 70mm film, and discs and streams are scanned from the negative or a print. A 2.20:1 film on a 16:9 TV fills 80.8% of the height (1745 of 2160 rows on 4K, 207-row bars). Brightness does not map to a film print either: a 14 fL cinema white is about 48 nits (see foot-lambert). Film-sourced discs on UHD Blu-ray are the closest at-home equivalent to a 70mm screening.