The Odyssey continues to defy all preconceived notions of what’s anticipated of a movie main as much as its launch, with the most recent bit of stories about its ticket gross sales. In an unprecedented transfer, choose theaters might be promoting tickets to IMAX 70mm screenings of The Odyssey a full yr earlier than the movie’s launch. Sometimes, tickets for a movement image go on sale about two months earlier than it hits theaters, often after the movie’s runtime is finalized.
Since The Odyssey remains to be in manufacturing, a lot in regards to the film stays unknown, main some to really feel this can be a advertising and marketing gimmick that will adversely have an effect on common moviegoers. Within the present digital age of scalping, mass buying, and social media hype, it is simple for The Odyssey to get swept up within the currents of social developments, turning into one other ticketed occasion that falls prey to scalpers. The theatrical expertise is likely one of the few occasions that hasn’t fallen sufferer to gouged ticket costs, that’s, till The Odyssey.
The Odyssey
- Launch Date
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July 17, 2026
- Producers
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Emma Thomas
The Theatrical Expertise Has Barely Recovered, However ‘The Odyssey’ Ticket Gross sales May Compromise It
Slowly however absolutely, the movie-going expertise has returned to the forefront of popular culture. Only a few years in the past, throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, film theaters had been closed as a result of want for social distancing and the pandemic’s deadly risk, which had endangered the communal expertise. Whereas the protocols had been finally lifted, it might take a yr or so earlier than going to the theater grew to become a daily incidence once more. Fortunately, there have been massive occasion movies, comparable to Spider-Man: No Means House and High Gun: Maverick, in addition to different blockbusters, that had been extremely profitable on the field workplace and received common audiences excited to return to the flicks.
Curiously, the premium launch of Oppenheimer set the usual for what is taken into account an ‘unique’ theatrical expertise. Oppenheimer‘s simultaneous launch with Barbie, mixed with the truth that this was Nolan’s first movie since departing Warner Bros. over the botched theatrical distribution of Tenet, had many movie followers wanting ahead to the biopic, made in a approach that solely the acclaimed director might. Though many showtimes had been broadly out there, the IMAX 70mm screenings (restricted to 30 theaters worldwide) set a brand new customary for the movie-going expertise.
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The viral ‘Barbenheimer’ development and the evolving social media panorama post-COVID have made IMAX 70mm screenings extremely wanted. This creates a possible drawback with The Odyssey‘s ticket gross sales. What has nearly all the time been an simply accessible expertise is now all of the sudden tough to acquire, with early ticket gross sales for the film already offered out at most IMAX 70mm areas. As a substitute of feeling like an occasion that everybody might expertise collectively, Nolan’s newest movie now has an air of exclusivity, which could possibly be detrimental to film followers in the long term.
The Ticket Gross sales for ‘The Odyssey’ May Set a Harmful Precedent
The aftermath of the ticket gross sales announcement additionally speaks for itself, as listings on websites like eBay have already pushed up costs for showtimes of a film that will not be launched for a whole yr. Whereas this may increasingly have sparked a dialog across the image, the long-term penalties might result in different movies adopting the identical technique of releasing tickets, perpetuating a cycle of inflated costs. Nonetheless, most showtimes is not going to be in IMAX 70mm, and there’ll nonetheless be many different alternatives to see The Odyssey when common tickets go on sale a couple of months earlier than the discharge.
Movie followers have taken to social media to precise their dissatisfaction with the poor launch and announcement of ticket gross sales. One consumer on X shared the IMAX official account’s announcement about tickets being out there, ridiculing them and saying, “posting it 32 minutes after they went on sale. What a fully abysmal roll-out.” Now, if somebody desires to attend The Odyssey in 70mm on opening evening, they should cope with ticket costs that vary from $150 to $300. It is a scenario extremely much like what one would discover at a live performance or dwell manufacturing, relatively than a theatrical screening of a film.
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Christopher Nolan has lengthy advocated for film theaters and the significance of experiencing his and different filmmakers’ initiatives on the large display. Nonetheless, ticket rollouts like this severely restrict everybody’s capability to expertise a film like The Odyssey within the format Nolan supposed, whereas jeopardizing future theatrical releases to the same destiny. Earlier this yr, IMAX 70mm screenings of Ryan Coogler’s movie Sinners offered out shortly after on-line hype and further showtimes, with scalpers profiting from the demand. Whereas filmmaker-driven initiatives being profitable is a giant win for the trade, producing buzz and hype by way of very early ticket gross sales might finally discourage common audiences from in search of out premium-format screenings.
Solely Time Will Inform if Early Ticket Gross sales for ‘The Odyssey’ Will Hurt the Film-Going Expertise
With a yr left till the discharge date and the film nonetheless in manufacturing, Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey, starring Matt Damon, has already positioned itself as one of the vital anticipated movies of 2026. It is astonishing to suppose that monetary projections are already being made based mostly on ticket gross sales for choose screenings throughout the U.S. for a film that is nonetheless a yr away from launch. It is an attention-grabbing and unconventional advertising and marketing tactic to say the least, and its success can also be depending on how lengthy The Odyssey finally ends up taking part in on IMAX screens. Nolan’s cope with Common for Oppenheimer allowed the movie to have a 100-day theatrical window, so it is protected to imagine his subsequent challenge may have the same, if not longer, theatrical window.
Will probably be attention-grabbing to see how this impacts future theatrical releases for large occasion movies. Relying on how profitable this finally ends up being for The Odyssey in the long term, there’s potential for early ticket gross sales to premium-format screenings of different massive motion pictures, such because the extremely anticipated MCU entry Avengers: Doomsday, nicely forward of its launch. General, whereas this daring ticketing technique for The Odyssey could have been thrilling for some followers who acquired tickets, it is a regarding signal for the way forward for the movie-going expertise and an invite for some to try to exploit it. The Odyssey will launch in theaters on July 17, 2026.