‘The Odyssey’ Just Broke IMAX, Tickets Are Sold Out Months In Advance And Fans Are Losing It
Christopher Nolan has always had a complicated love affair with the biggest screens in the world, and his latest gamble may be his most audacious yet. ‘The Odyssey‘ arrived as the first movie ever shot entirely on IMAX film cameras, a technical feat that took a 91 day shoot across six countries to pull off. The buzz leading up to release already had the internet talking, but nobody quite expected what would happen once tickets actually went on sale.
The film, starring Matt Damon, Anne Hathaway, Tom Holland, Zendaya, Charlize Theron, Lupita Nyong’o, John Leguizamo, and Samantha Morton, opened to a staggering $123.5 million domestically and more than $263 million worldwide, numbers that instantly cemented it as one of the biggest openings of the year.
Now IMAX CEO Rich Gelfond is confirming exactly what fans on social media have been buzzing about for days. In a conversation covered by The Hollywood Reporter, Gelfond discussed the future of Nolan’s Matt Damon and Zendaya starring tentpole on IMAX screens, weighing metrics like ticket pre sales and social media chatter before delivering the line that set timelines ablaze. “‘The Odyssey’ will play in IMAX 70mm locations for months, and we’re already recording sellouts at these locations deep into the film’s run.”
That is not a small claim. According to Variety, all IMAX 70mm tickets in Los Angeles and New York are sold out through August 19, while London screenings are booked solid through September 10, a full seven weeks after release. Gelfond told the outlet, “We’re sold out in some theaters into the fifth week already.” The scarcity is not just hype either, since only 25 theaters in the entire United States can even project true IMAX 70mm film, and globally that number sits at just 41.
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The bottleneck comes down to hardware that simply cannot be mass produced anymore. Gelfond explained that IMAX film projectors haven’t been manufactured in about 50 years, meaning every screen currently running ‘The Odyssey’ in 70mm relies on retrofitted, decades old equipment. The parts used to build these projectors “simply no longer exist,” according to sources who spoke with Variety. That scarcity has turned catching the film in true 70mm into something of a pilgrimage, with fans reportedly road tripping across state lines just to snag a seat.
Momentum has not slowed down either. IMAX reported that the film pulled in $12 million in IMAX sales the Monday after opening weekend, roughly 20 percent of its total weekend haul, well above the usual 10 percent bump studios expect from a Monday. Gelfond, appearing on Fox Business Network’s The Claman Countdown, called the debut a straight up frenzy, noting that even midnight and 3 a.m. showtimes were selling out as audiences raced to see the ensemble cast on the biggest screen available.
For a movie built entirely around the format it was filmed in, that kind of sustained demand feels like validation for Nolan’s original gamble. It also raises an obvious question for anyone still hoping to catch ‘The Odyssey’ the way it was intended to be seen. Are you planning to hunt down a true IMAX 70mm screening before those sold out months disappear, or have you already accepted you might be watching this one digitally?
