IMAX 70mm screenings of The Odyssey sell out a year in advance

By the time you read this, it’ll almost certainly be too late to snag a ticket of your own, unless you were one of the thousands of people who bought them within minutes of the sale going live. Most screenings are already sold out—even the very front seats which will likely make audiences feel like they’re watching the narrative unfold from within the Trojan Horse itself. 

This is, by all accounts, the first time in recorded film history that tickets of any sort have gone on sale a full year before a film’s release, per The Hollywood Reporter, which does offer the caveat that only a few dozen IMAX screens in the country have the ability to screen a 70mm film, Nolan’s preferred format. (The film is currently being shot entirely with IMAX cameras, another first for a commercial feature.)

This isn’t the first time IMAX screenings of a Nolan film have generated a bit of a rat race. Tickets to see Cillian Murphy detonate the bomb in Oppenheimer were selling for over $100 on Craigslist in 2023, after that film similarly wiped out the AMC website’s bank of available seats. That was happening during the film’s run, though; Odyssey tickets are already up on eBay for up to $300, and we can only guess how much they might appreciate in value over the next 12 months. 

Luckily there are other formats in which you’ll be able to watch the film that have not yet gone on sale (or sold out). Still, one can’t help but feel a little trepidation at the success of this stunt; if it worked this well for one format, why shouldn’t the studios replicate it for future films and/or other types of screens? Buying concert tickets is tough enough as it is; now, that nightmare may also be coming for the cinema. Cinephiles: get ready to embark on an Odyssey of your own the next time your favorite director comes to town.