No matter how you choose to see Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 you’ll be getting the best experience as there are over 600 different versions of the movie that are optimized for different aspect ratios and screen sizes.
Evan Jacobs, Disney’s VP of Finishing and Stereo, told THR all about the many versions of the movies. Jacobs explained that director James Gunn took advantage of variable aspect ratios and designed his movie around using them. Gunn also created versions for traditional theaters and IMAX, alongside other technical aspects.
“It’s definitely the most complex delivery Marvel’s ever done,” says Jacob. He believes that they have given nearly every domestic and international territory the ability to “maximize their screen size for the audience. So wherever you go to see it, you’re gonna see the best version.”
How many versions do MCU movies typically have?
As Jacobs explains, some Marvel releases have had 500 versions, and Avatar 2 had a record-breaking 1,065 versions. However, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 tops 600, which is high even for Marvel’s standards.
“Marvel has almost become legendary in the postproduction community for pushing pretty hard on deadlines and kind of waiting till the last minute to make the movie as great as we could possibly make it,” says Jacobs. “[But] the movie was pretty solid. It was the movie he was gonna make at the beginning. … We didn’t have to chase a lot of crazy, and the visual effects landed in a rational, sane way. We’ve all been just like pinching ourselves.”
While that number is staggering and accurate, Gunn went on to explain on Twitter that it felt more like ten distinct versions to him. Although, even that number was “a lot to oversee.”
