Christopher Nolan has been a HUGE advocate of the 70mm format with THE DARK KNIGHT RISES and INTERSTELLAR featuring an extensive amount of screentime in IMAX. When it was announced that J.J. Abrams would be following suit by shooting a pivotal action scene the same way, I assumed that audiences would have just as much access. Seems that's not the case, friends.
Screencrush has the details regarding the format, and long story short, distribution of the 70mm prints is just not being made widely available. Some IMAX theaters are switching out their projectors for a laser projection system, and most theaters are opting out to display the film in the 3D IMAX "Experience" (Lie-max), rather than the 2D iteration. In fact, there's only 11 theaters in the country where you can catch the film in all of is 2D glory with the 70mm scene intact. Check out the list below.
Alabama
California
Florida
Indiana
Iowa
Missouri
Pennsylvania
Washington, DC
Given that this is freakin' STAR WARS, I'm really amazed by the lack of support here. A true IMAX theater is really the only place to advantage of that format, and given the lengths Quentin Tarantino went to in order to ensure audiences could see his film this way, it makes me wonder why Disney couldn't pull out all the stops to do the same. In any case, here's hoping you're somewhere close to one of those theaters!
STAR WARS: THE FORCE AWAKENS opens on December 18, 2015.