'The Odyssey' Just Achieved an Unprecedented IMAX Feat

Christopher Nolan’s relationship with IMAX has always been central to his filmmaking identity, stretching back to 2008 when ‘The Dark Knight’ became the first Hollywood movie to use IMAX cameras for select action sequences. Each subsequent film pushed that partnership further, but ‘The Odyssey’ took the collaboration somewhere entirely new by becoming the first feature ever shot completely with IMAX 70mm film cameras.

That technical leap required IMAX to develop custom sound-dampening equipment just to make full-length film production viable in the format, a genuine engineering challenge rather than a marketing gimmick. The ambition translated almost immediately into record-shattering box office numbers once the film hit theaters, becoming the fastest release ever to cross $200 million in global IMAX receipts within its first month alone.

That momentum has now produced its biggest milestone yet. ‘The Odyssey’ has officially become the first film in history to surpass $500 million in ticket sales on IMAX screens alone, a threshold no other movie, including 2009’s ‘Avatar,’ had ever come close to reaching. The film also delivered four consecutive weekends earning more than $50 million on IMAX screens worldwide, a feat no other IMAX release had ever managed even twice in a row.

IMAX CEO Rich Gelfond didn’t hold back in praising the achievement, extending his congratulations to Nolan and his team for shattering the company’s longstanding box office record with at least a month still left to run on IMAX screens worldwide. Coming from the head of a company that has worked with countless directors over the decades, that kind of statement underscores just how unusual this milestone actually is.

‘Avatar’ had held IMAX’s all-time revenue record for more than 15 years before ‘The Odyssey’ arrived, finishing its entire theatrical run with $271 million on the format. ‘The Odyssey’ overtook that mark just weeks into its own release and now sits with roughly a $230 million cushion above Avatar’s total lifetime haul, an almost unthinkable gap considering how untouchable that record once seemed.

Much of that continued momentum has come from IMAX’s decision to keep extending the film’s premium format run well beyond a typical theatrical window. The film’s true 70mm presentation, screening in just 41 locations worldwide at the massive resolution Nolan favors, has already generated tens of millions on its own, with Los Angeles’s TCL Chinese Theatre setting a new record for the most any single title has ever grossed at one IMAX location. IMAX has since extended the film’s run through September 30, giving it an eleven-week theatrical window in the format.

In 2 Weeks, experience The Odyssey in theaters on July 17. Get tickets now. https://t.co/sk8jwTBi7P pic.twitter.com/9wjoSuVJqE
— The Odyssey Movie (@odysseymovie) July 1, 2026

That kind of sustained performance has meaningfully boosted IMAX’s own business heading into the back half of the year. The company has pointed to ‘The Odyssey’ as a driving force behind what it expects to be its best year ever, with roughly $1.4 billion in projected global box office revenue across its entire network of films.

For a filmmaker whose career has been defined by pushing large-format cinema to its technical limits, ‘The Odyssey’ crossing half a billion dollars on IMAX screens alone represents perhaps the clearest validation yet of that decade-long creative gamble. Given how much runway still remains on its extended theatrical window, it’s entirely possible this record keeps climbing even further before the film’s run finally winds down.