On Tuesday (March 12), I randomly thought about NASCAR 3D: The IMAX Experience, which was the first film I ever saw in a theater.
It was in the Science Museum of Virginia’s “The Dome” in Richmond, Va., and my parents and I went to a 3 p.m. showing on April 7, 2004.
So an epiphany hit me that, man, it has been 20 years since that released, hasn’t it? I decided to check the release date. It was March 12. I was thinking about the film on the exact anniversary. It’s like divine intervention for me to realize that and write this article.
Just two days after the Oscars concluded and the magnificent Oppenheimer took home seven awards; the amazing Emma Stone won a 50/50 race between herself and Lily Gladstone for Best Actress; Godzilla Minus One won visual effects and the movie year that featured Barbie and the eventual Best Picture winner in a “Barbenheimer” double feature that took the world by storm and brought theaters to life … I’m already thinking back two decades.
On that note, Oppenheimer‘s IMAX release was a cornerstone moment for movies since the COVID-19 pandemic. Between that in 2023 and Top Gun: Maverick in 2022 and outside of maybe Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning Part One, the Stop Making Sense rerelease and Dune: Part Two, I think the medium has experienced rejuvenation. IMAX has been around for a long time, but with how big recent releases in the format have been and especially now with a Best Picture winner having been shot as such, this is a watershed moment for those screens.
So happy 20th anniversary, NASCAR 3D! Let’s talk about it.
First up, the basics: it’s 48 minutes long. Simon Wincer directed it, and his main credits consist of directing Free Willy, Crocodile Dundee in Los Angeles and a few other things, including some Young Indiana Jones stuff. Distributed by Warner Bros., it’s narrated by Kiefer Sutherland, had a soundtrack and DVD release and was featured on Johnny Sauter‘s car both ahead of its release date at Las Vegas Motor Speedway on March 7 and afterward at Sonoma Raceway on May 2 (all before Sauter was replaced in the Richard Childress Racing No. 30 after 13 races).
The biggest takeaway of this film is that moviegoers got a theatrical documentary covering NASCAR. Blink of an Eye and Rowdy got very limited, mostly one-night-only runs. Most other NASCAR-themed docs are TV originals like Refuse to Lose, Unrivaled and, most recently, I Am Kevin Harvick…
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