Los Angeles fans pack first sold-out IMAX screening of The Odyssey

Fans packed TCL Chinese Theatres in Hollywood on Friday for the first sold-out IMAX 70mm screening of Christopher Nolan's The Odyssey, turning a single showing into an event at the center of the film business. The theater at 6925 Hollywood Boulevard opened its doors at 2 p.m. for the first showing, with additional IMAX 70mm screenings listed for 6 p.m., 9:55 p.m. and 1:50 a.m. The film runs 2 hours and 52 minutes.

The early rush matters because studios now lean on premium-format screenings to make a release feel scarce and worth leaving home for. The Odyssey was shot entirely with IMAX film cameras and stars Matt Damon as Odysseus, a built-in spectacle suited to the larger images and heightened sound that exhibitors use to distinguish IMAX from a standard multiplex visit. In that setup, the first show is no longer just the first show. It becomes part of the film’s marketing.

The Los Angeles sellout carried extra weight because Hollywood is where the industry watches audience appetite most closely. Tickets for some IMAX 70mm showings went on sale a year before the film’s July 17, 2026 release, and several screenings in select cities quickly disappeared. That advance demand gave theaters and studios an immediate signal that the format itself was helping drive interest, not just the title on the marquee.

For exhibitors, that kind of response supports the premium pricing and limited-seat strategy that has become central to event moviegoing. For studios, it creates the kind of early momentum that can shape expectations long before the full rollout. The Odyssey now has the kind of opening-night story that streaming cannot replicate: a packed room, a sold-out large-format screen and a Los Angeles audience willing to treat a movie as an occasion.