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Tickets to see Christopher Nolan’s next epic, The Odyssey, in IMAX will go on sale July 17th — a full year before the movie releases.
The Big Picture: Releasing tickets for a movie a year in advance has never been done in Hollywood history (as far as we can tell), with even the biggest blockbusters typically making showtimes available only a couple of months ahead at most. But with Nolan essentially serving as the biggest IP in movies and IMAX commanding unprecedented demand, Universal is betting that it’s never too early to start building hype.
Behind the Scenes: Universal has a lot of confidence in The Odyssey — a big-budget adaptation of the classic Greek epic poem — which is set to open on July 17th, 2026.
- Tickets won’t be available for every IMAX screening — just select showtimes playing the movie in the biggest format, IMAX 70mm, at 19 theaters in the US and 11 internationally.
- Considering that Nolan’s last movie, the Oscar-winning Oppenheimer, made 20% of its $975 million gross in IMAX, demand could crash ticketing sites like Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour — especially since this will be the first movie shot entirely with IMAX cameras.
- And that demand could build even without the film’s first teaser trailer being available online — it’s currently only playing in front of screenings of Jurassic World Rebirth and Superman.
Final Credits: IMAX is quickly becoming synonymous with big-screen moviegoing. As typical movie theater screens often lag in quality at many locations, IMAX has cemented itself as the best format for watching something epic and has evolved into a filmmaker-approved immersive experience that justifies a premium ticket price — especially in the limited 70mm format.
In other words, IMAX is a bona fide event. It’s why people crossed state lines to watch Oppenheimer on IMAX screens, why audiences waited weeks to see Sinners in the format earlier this year, and why Barbie filmmaker Greta Gerwig strong-armed Netflix into releasing her next movie, Narnia, in the format before it debuts on the streamer.
Coming Soon: We wouldn’t be surprised if the major cinema chains rushed to build more IMAX 70mm screens ahead of The Odyssey’s release.
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