Nolan’s ‘The Odyssey’ Breaks the BFI Imax All-Time Record With a Million-Dollar Opening Day Before It Even Opens
Christopher Nolan has long been one of the few filmmakers capable of making theatrical cinema feel like a genuine cultural event, and everything surrounding his adaptation of ‘The Odyssey‘ is reinforcing that status in remarkable fashion. The film, set to open globally on July 17, is a retelling of Homer’s ancient Greek epic, following the hero Odysseus as he journeys home after the Trojan War, with Matt Damon in the lead role. Alongside Damon, the film boasts a star-studded ensemble that includes Anne Hathaway, Zendaya, Tom Holland, Charlize Theron, and Robert Pattinson.
What sets this production apart even before a single frame has screened publicly is how it was made. ‘The Odyssey’ is the only theatrical feature to be filmed entirely in the IMAX format using their bespoke cameras, with Nolan shooting in the highest resolution available, up to three times higher than standard digital cameras. That technical ambition has only deepened the appetite for large-format screenings, and the numbers are beginning to reflect just how ravenous that appetite truly is.
As Variety reported, the BFI Imax in London, the largest screen in the United Kingdom, has revealed that it sold 28,000 tickets within its first 24 hours of availability, breaking the venue’s first day sales record with a total gross of £750,000, equivalent to roughly $1 million. The scale of that figure becomes even more striking when placed in context. The film’s first day takings leapfrogged ‘Dune: Part Two’, which took £366,000 in the first 24 hours at the venue, and Nolan’s own ‘Oppenheimer’, which took £254,000 in the same timeframe.
The record-breaking numbers follow four opening weekend screenings that had previously sold out in under an hour a full year in advance, including a special midnight showing set to kick off a weekend of round-the-clock screenings. That kind of pre-release mania is not confined to the UK.
According to Deadline, the first day advance Premium Large Format ticket sales for ‘The Odyssey’ at AMC were the highest the chain had seen for any major studio movie in four years, with PLF presales alone outpacing total first day presales across all formats for any major theatrical release since 2022. AMC CEO Adam Aron addressed the chaotic rollout on social media, apologizing for long queues on the website while confirming the record-breaking result.
For comparison, ‘Oppenheimer’ ended its initial theatrical run at BFI Imax with a lifetime gross of £2.2 million, a benchmark that ‘The Odyssey’ appears poised to chase down before the film is even a month into its release. The precedent set by that previous Nolan epic looms large over every conversation about this one.
‘Oppenheimer’ grossed $975.8 million globally and made over $190 million of its revenue from IMAX screenings alone, establishing a commercial template that studios and theater chains are clearly eager to replicate and expand upon.
The fervor has not been without its chaotic edge. Tickets have been resold on secondary markets for as high as $1,000, with the initial July presale from a year ago already prompting eBay resells above $100. Scalpers flooding the market for a film that has not yet screened a single public showing is a telling measure of just how unprecedented the anticipation around ‘The Odyssey’ has become.
Whether the film itself can live up to this level of pre-release frenzy is the question every cinephile is quietly sitting with, and it would be fascinating to hear where you plan to watch it and whether IMAX 70mm is already on your list.
