IMAX ticket sales for 'The Odyssey' top $140M as 70mm screenings sell out weeks in advance. With only 25 U.S. screens, the extension into September tests how long scarcity can drive demand.
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Universal and IMAX have pushed the 70mm screenings of Christopher Nolan's “The Odyssey” into mid-September. The extension follows weeks of sellouts and near-instantaneous ticket buying, a pattern that echoes Nolan's 2023 run with “Oppenheimer.”
Only 25 screens in the U.S. can play physical film reels of the movie, and 41 locations globally. Most theaters have moved to digital projection, which makes these showings a scarce product. IMAX has added late-night and early-morning sessions to absorb some of the overflow.
IMAX ticket sales for “The Odyssey” have passed $140 million worldwide. That is a little more than 20 percent of the film's $652 million global total, even though the IMAX locations represent less than 1 percent of all screens. The premium format is generating outsized revenue per screen.
The film's second weekend domestic drop was just 27 percent. Typical Hollywood blockbusters fall between 50 and 70 percent each week after opening. A smaller decline points to strong word of mouth and repeat viewings. Pre-sales started in July 2025, a full year before release, which helped lock in audiences early.
For the past three weeks, “The Odyssey” has faced little direct competition. That changes this Friday with the arrival of Sony and Marvel's “Spider-Man: Brand New Day,” along with IMAX-shot features “The End of Oak Street” and “Resident Evil.” The film will have to share screen time.
IMAX's next committed 70mm release is Warner Bros.' “Dune: Part Three,” directed by Denis Villeneuve, scheduled for Dec. 18. That gap gives “The Odyssey” room to continue its run through the fall.
The box office numbers reinforce the value of premium large-format screens. Studios that invest in IMAX-grade productions can capture outsized revenue per screen, especially when physical film scarcity drives urgency. The 70mm bottleneck is real, and it is also a marketing asset. The longer “The Odyssey” holds those screens, the more it benefits from the exclusivity that digital-only releases cannot replicate.
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