Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey has conquered a major ticket-sale record more than a month before its release.
The upcoming fantasy movie based on Homer’s epic is one of the most anticipated films this year and Nolan’s most ambitious project to date. The Odyssey is notorious for being tough to adapt because it’s a non-linear 24-book poem, filled with the Trojan War, Greek gods, and a man’s will to return home. However, Nolan has proven himself to be the perfect director to accept this challenge, and it’s only built on hype as the first movie shot entirely on IMAX 70 mm cameras.
On June 4, 2026, The Odyssey tickets went on sale only for premium large format (PLF), including IMAX 70mm, Dolby Cinema, and Prime at AMC. However, once they became available, the AMC website crashed, with buyers waiting as long as an hour to purchase tickets. Regal Cinema and Cinemark did not report similar circumstances, while standard showtimes won’t go on sale until later this summer.
Now, Deadline reports that the first-day advance PLF presales for The Odyssey were the highest that AMC has seen for any major studio movie since 2022. This presale even outdid any big movie presales that weren’t just PLF in the last four years and was easily the best year-to-date for the theater chain. Meanwhile, music-oriented projects had higher first-day advance tickets, especially if they were initially released within AMC Theatres.
The latest ticket triumph only highlights a fraction of the movie’s frenzy, given that The Odyssey doesn’t release for another month. While tickets tend to become available no more than two months before release, Universal Pictures decided to release the first wave for 70mm and IMAX 70mm one year before its release on July 17. While it’s unheard of, the strategy worked since tickets quickly sold out and excitement was building for Nolan’s upcoming epic. That sale reportedly generated $1.5 million.
Part of the reason this proved successful is Nolan’s reputation for producing his movies for IMAX. The Oscar-winning filmmaker has advocated enhancing the movie theater experience by filming features with an IMAX camera. This goes back to 2008’s The Dark Knight, and Nolan has continued to refine the filmmaking technique with each movie, such as Interstellar and Oppenheimer.
This has since set a new standard in making movies, with the director even convincing Ryan Coogler to shoot his award-winning horror movie Sinners with 70mm IMAX cameras. Meanwhile, Nolan’s prestige has created a phenomenon where moviegoers watch his movies in IMAX or any available PLF.
Despite the high demand to see The Odyssey in PLF, the supply is limited since only 24 theaters in the United States are playing it in IMAX 70mm. The first ticket drop in July 2025 prompted resells on sites like eBay for over $100. The recent June presale triggered a similar situation, with tickets resold for as high as $1,000.
Meanwhile, Warner Bros. movie Dune: Part Three delivered a similar sales strategy by dropping the first wave of IMAX tickets nearly nine months before its December 2026 release. Those sold out instantly within a day since the threequel closes out Denis Villeneuve’s trilogy based on Frank Herbert’s books.
Although The Odyssey is one of the most anticipated movies this year, it’s not without controversy, ranging from the issues with American accents to Lupita Nyong’o’s casting as Helen of Troy. However, that has seemingly done little to hurt the audience’s excitement, as proven by the recent presales.
In the upcoming epic, Matt Damon’s Odysseus goes on a dangerous journey home after the Trojan War and encounters Greek gods along the way. The Odyssey has a star-studded ensemble cast of Anne Hathaway, Tom Holland, Zendaya, Charlize Theron, Robert Pattinson, Nyong’o, Jon Bernthal, and Benny Safdie, to name a few. Nolan also wrote the movie, while co-producing with his spouse, Emma Thomas.
The Odyssey releases in theaters on July 17, 2026.
- Release Date
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July 17, 2026
- Runtime
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172 Minutes