‘Apollo 13’ Launches Into IMAX Theaters For One Week Only

Apollo 13 is preparing for a re-launch. The 1995 Universal Pictures film is making a weeklong return to IMAX theaters from September 19th through the 25th. This is the first time that the film will be shown in its entirety in the IMAX format. Apollo 13 depicts the now-famous 1970 moon mission, which didn’t go according to plan. Less than a year after Neil Armstrong made his giant leap for mankind on the Apollo 11 mission, astronauts Jim Lovell, Fred Haise, and Jack Swigert were to be the third crew to land on the moon’s surface. But after successfully exiting Earth’s orbit, the spacecraft suffered an explosion in its service module, leaking oxygen into the vacuum of space and endangering the lives of the crew. With a moon-landing out of the question, the new mission was just to return home safely — a simple enough goal, but a phenomenal engineering challenge for Mission Control and for the astronauts themselves. The historic events that followed made for one heck of a dramatic story, which is beautifully crafted by Apollo 13 director Ron Howard. Howard also co-founded Imagine Entertainment with producer Brian Grazer. The IMAX re-release celebrates the 30th anniversary of the film’s 1995 debut. 

Apollo 13 is a testament to human resilience, ingenuity, and teamwork in the face of impossible odds. As we celebrate the film’s 30th anniversary, I’m reminded of how relevant those themes remain today. This re-release is not only a celebration of that incredible mission and the people behind it, but also a proud milestone for all of us at Imagine. It was a defining moment in our journey as storytellers and we’re thrilled that Universal and IMAX have made it possible to share it with a new generation.

— Ron Howard

Part of Apollo 13’s lasting appeal is its powerhouse cast. The film stars Tom Hanks, Kevin Bacon, and the late Bill Paxton as the crew of the ill-fated mission, with Gary Sinese playing astronaut Ken Mattingly, and Ed Harris as flight director Gene Kranz, the head of Mission Control. Kathleen Quinlan played Marilyn, the wife of Hanks character Jim Lovell. Apollo 13 was the first movie ever to win the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture, the award given by the Screen Actors Guild to honor the finest acting achievements in film. Ed Harris and Kathleen Quinlan both received Academy Award nominations for their performances.

Apollo 13 was the first (and to my knowledge, only) major motion picture to have its space scenes actually filmed in a zero gravity environment . Of course, sending the cast on a multi-billion-dollar NASA mission was not an option, so sets were built inside a NASA training aircraft, which flew in a parabolic up-and-down path to produce 30 seconds of weightlessness at a time. The production was nearly as big a technical challenge as the Apollo 13 mission itself.

We’re thrilled to bring it back to theaters in IMAX, where its full emotional impact and visual scope can be experienced like never before. It’s a film that continues to inspire audiences with its portrayal of human resilience and problem-solving under unimaginable circumstances. Apollo 13 is a towering accomplishment in filmmaking and storytelling.

— Jim Orr, President of Domestic Theatrical Distribution at Universal Pictures

The IMAX remaster of the film was also a technological achievement for the Canadian large-format film company; Apollo 13 was the first live-action production to be digitally remastered using IMAX’s DMR (Digital Media Remastering) process. When the IMAX version of the movie was initially released in 2002, it was the first movie to open in both commercial and institutional IMAX venues worldwide. But at the time, 13 minutes of footage used in the original 1995 theatrical release had to be cut, owing to the physical limitations of the older 70mm IMAX film platters. The analog IMAX projection systems of the day used large platters to hold the film, and this equipment had a maximum capacity that could not accommodate Apollo 13’s full 140-minute runtime. (Up until that point, IMAX had primarily been used for shorter documentaries, such as those shown in science museums.) The new 2025 release will present the entire movie in IMAX for the first time.

Get your tickets here: Apollo 13 IMAX