At the risk of sounding like Nicole Kidman: We all know the feelings that unite an audience in a movie theater. Yet when I went to see the rereleased “Interstellar,” I was struck by a new feeling. Taking my seat in front of the IMAX screen at the AMC Lincoln Square, I was honestly shocked to see that at a 2:45 p.m. Friday showing of a 10-year-old movie, an incredibly large theater, with dramatic banked seating — the only true IMAX theater in Manhattan — was totally packed.

This was the kickoff of the film’s second weekend. (Last weekend it took in a neat $4.6 million on 165 screens.) And before the movie had even started, it struck me that those of us in the audience were already profoundly united in wanting to reexperience “Interstellar.” There were some, of course, who had never seen it. Yet this was basically a revival...