If you have spent the past two weeks refreshing theater listings for an IMAX 70mm ticket to The Odyssey, your persistence may finally pay off.
IMAX has extended Christopher Nolan’s blockbuster in the coveted format through Sept. 16, nearly a month beyond its previous Aug. 19 end date. New screenings appeared on IMAX’s website Thursday July 30, although the additional dates did not exactly eliminate the competition. The AMC app placed moviegoers in a digital queue as tickets were released.
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The problem is partly one of supply. Only 25 theaters in the United States and 41 worldwide can project the physical IMAX 70mm reels used for the movie. Other theaters offer digital IMAX screenings, but those versions may be cropped depending on the auditorium rather than displaying the full, towering image captured by the cameras.
That distinction matters more for The Odyssey than it does for most blockbusters. Nolan’s retelling of Homer’s epic — starring Matt Damon, Tom Holland, and Anne Hathaway — is the first feature film shot entirely using IMAX film cameras.
Previous movies typically used the bulky, extremely loud cameras for action sequences before returning to another format for dialogue-heavy scenes. As a result, their aspect ratios could change throughout the movie. The Odyssey fills the screen from top to bottom for its entire 173-minute runtime.
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Moviegoers have treated the screenings accordingly. The first tickets went on sale a full year before the movie’s July 17 release, and some theaters sold out weeks of showings in advance. Locations eventually added screenings at hours generally reserved for airport departures, including 2 a.m. and 6 a.m., to squeeze more viewers into the limited number of auditoriums.
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All of that demand is turning the format into a large piece of the movie’s success. By July 26, IMAX screenings had generated more than $140 million worldwide in ticket sales, accounting for over 20 percent of the movie’s then-$652 million global total. That’s especially notable given that IMAX locations represent less than 1 percent of its screens.
By July 30, The Odyssey had passed $700 million globally after just 12 days in theaters, already becoming the fourth highest-grossing movie of the year.
Its second-week ticket sales declined only 27 percent from its domestic opening weekend. Major studio releases more commonly fall between 50 and 70 percent, making the unusually small drop another indication that people are continuing to book tickets and possibly returning for repeat viewings.
Nolan has been here before. IMAX extended the 70mm run of Oppenheimer twice in 2023, and the movie later returned to the format as its awards campaign gathered momentum. Given the reviews and box-office performance of The Odyssey, it could eventually follow a similar path.
For now, fans have one more month to catch the movie in Nolan’s preferred format, though finding an available seat may remain an odyssey of its own.
