The Odyssey fans pay premiums for rare IMAX 70mm screenings

Moviegoers chasing Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey are paying extra for the rarest large-format seats, with IMAX 70mm screenings limited to just 25 theaters in the United States. Some fans are also taking extreme showtimes, including 3 a.m. screenings, to see the film in the format marketed as the definitive way to watch it.

IMAX says The Odyssey opens in theaters on July 17, 2026, and was shot entirely with IMAX Film Cameras. The company also says the film, starring Matt Damon as Odysseus, follows his perilous voyage home after the Trojan War, and calls it the first theatrical release ever shot entirely with IMAX film cameras.

Demand showed up well before opening night. A Fandango Facebook post on June 3 said tickets for the largest screens would go on sale the next day at 9 a.m. PT, 12 p.m. ET. By the time those tickets were circulating, a Facebook post from The Odyssey x Miami said IMAX 70mm premiere tickets were already sold out in select cities, underscoring how tightly supply is being rationed around the film’s prestige release strategy.

That scarcity has turned access into a willingness-to-pay test. The film is booked across premium-format venues including AMC Theatres, BFI IMAX, Harkins, Cineworld Cinemas, Celebration Cinema and the Science Museum in London, but the 70mm IMAX run remains the hardest ticket to secure. In Sheffield, Showroom Cinema says it is the only cinema in the city showing The Odyssey in 35mm, another sign that format itself has become part of the draw.

The race for the biggest screen fits Christopher Nolan’s long-running playbook, but The Odyssey pushes it further by tying exclusivity to the format’s technical promise. In practice, that means some fans are not just buying a movie ticket. They are buying access to a scarce viewing event, one that can require advance planning, odd-hour sessions and in some cases travel to another city to get the version they want.