‘The Odyssey’ Becomes Highest-Grossing Film Ever at London’s BFI IMAX

Christopher Nolan has spent his career building a devoted following for large-format cinema, but even by his standards, the numbers coming out of one particular London theater have been staggering. Since its release, ‘The Odyssey’ has turned into something closer to a phenomenon than a typical summer blockbuster.

That momentum has been especially pronounced at the BFI IMAX in Waterloo, the largest cinema screen in the United Kingdom. The venue has hosted the film in true IMAX 70mm format, giving audiences the experience exactly as Nolan intended, and moviegoers have shown up in numbers rarely seen at any single screen.

Those numbers have now added up to a historic milestone. ‘The Odyssey’ has officially become the highest-grossing film of all time at BFI IMAX, surpassing James Cameron’s 2009 blockbuster ‘Avatar’ to claim the title. To date, the venue has sold more than 101,000 tickets for the film, generating £2,683,987, or roughly $3.6 million, in ticket sales from that single screen alone.

That total comes with a 95% occupancy rate across all showtimes currently on sale, an extraordinary figure for any theater, let alone one with a single screen carrying this much of the load. BFI IMAX remains the number one performing venue for the film both in the UK and internationally, and it now ranks as the second-highest grossing IMAX screen in the world, trailing only the TCL Chinese Theatre in Los Angeles, which holds nearly double the seating capacity.

The film’s success at the venue didn’t happen gradually. ‘The Odyssey’ set the theater’s all-time opening weekend record when it debuted, pulling in £219,867 over three days and beating the previous record held by ‘Star Wars: The Last Jedi’ since 2017. That opening also topped Nolan’s own 2023 hit ‘Oppenheimer,’ which had previously held the venue’s second-place spot.

Demand was just as intense before the film even opened. ‘The Odyssey’ shattered BFI IMAX’s single-day presale record back in June, selling 28,000 tickets in the first 24 hours for £750,000 in revenue, doing so a full year ahead of the film’s actual release. Four opening weekend screenings reportedly sold out in under an hour once tickets initially went live.

That early frenzy has translated into sustained, near-constant sellouts since release. Across eight weeks, 173 consecutive IMAX 70mm screenings at the venue have sold out entirely, with fans reportedly traveling to London from as far as Singapore, Los Angeles, and Toronto just to catch the film in its intended format.

Much of that devotion ties directly to how ‘The Odyssey’ was made. The film is the first feature ever shot entirely using IMAX film cameras, a distinction that’s made theaters capable of showing true IMAX 70mm prints, including BFI IMAX, especially valuable destinations for dedicated fans of the format.

BFI IMAX programme manager Madeleine Mullett pointed to that unique legacy as part of what’s driving the record-breaking demand. “As the only cinema in the UK to hold a complete archive of Christopher Nolan’s Imax 70mm filmography, now including The Odyssey, we are proud to be the home of Christopher Nolan on film,” Mullett said, according to Deadline.

The venue’s numbers are just one piece of a much larger success story for ‘The Odyssey.’ The film has already surpassed $700 million globally, becoming the fourth highest-grossing movie of the year in just its first twelve days in theaters, a stunning pace for a project built around Homer’s ancient epic.

With screenings continuing to sell out and additional showtimes reportedly being added in response to demand, ‘The Odyssey’ shows no signs of slowing down at BFI IMAX or elsewhere.

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