Some viewers crossed oceans to watch Christopher Nolan’s latest film on the largest screen in the United Kingdom. The The Odyssey IMAX opening rewarded that commitment with a new box office record for London’s BFI IMAX, where tickets have become scarce enough to make a 3 a.m. screening seem perfectly reasonable.
From July 17 to 19, the three-hour epic earned £219,867, or about $296,147, from the venue’s single screen. The British Film Institute said that was the strongest opening weekend ever recorded by an IMAX cinema in the U.K. or any international market.
Which record did The Odyssey break at BFI IMAX?
The film moved ahead of Star Wars: The Last Jedi, which had held the BFI IMAX opening-weekend record since 2017 with £216,454. Nolan’s Oppenheimer now sits third after collecting £207,677 during its first weekend in 2023.
BFI IMAX was also the highest-grossing IMAX venue in both the U.K. and international markets during the July 17-19 frame. The result carries extra weight because it came from one auditorium rather than a large theater circuit.
The venue said it had sold more than 82,000 admissions for current and future screenings, representing £2,169,882, or roughly $2.9 million, in ticket sales. Since that figure includes all showtimes already on sale, much of the money appears to be advance revenue rather than tickets used by July 20.
Those bookings have produced a 94 percent occupancy rate and already placed The Odyssey third among the BFI IMAX’s highest-grossing films. More dates are expected to be added.
Why are IMAX 70mm tickets so difficult to find?
Nolan shot The Odyssey entirely with IMAX cameras, making the 70mm presentation central to the release rather than an optional upgrade. Only 41 theaters worldwide can show the film in IMAX 70mm, and those locations generated $6.3 million during opening weekend, according to the Associated Press.
London has become one of the clearest examples of that limited supply meeting unusually strong demand. The BFI reported 173 consecutive sold-out IMAX 70mm screenings scheduled across eight weeks, with moviegoers traveling from Singapore, Los Angeles and Toronto.
TheWrap reported that the cinema ran sold-out screenings around the clock for two weeks. Other theaters added midnight and 3 a.m. showings, the Associated Press said. Scarcity has done a remarkable job of persuading people that sleep is an optional premium feature.
Premium formats accounted for 53 percent of worldwide ticket sales, according to TheWrap. That share shows why studios and filmmakers continue to promote large-format presentations as distinct events, particularly when audiences can watch most other releases at home after a relatively short wait.
How large was the worldwide opening?
The Associated Press estimated that The Odyssey opened with $264.1 million globally. That total included $124.5 million in the United States and Canada and $139.6 million from overseas markets.
IMAX contributed $51.8 million worldwide, the format’s biggest weekend on record. IMAX chief executive Rich Gelfond called the release “a global cultural event” and said some screenings in the film’s fifth week had already sold out.
In the U.K. and Ireland, the film opened with $17.4 million, according to TheWrap. Its North American debut ranked third among 2026 releases, behind Toy Story 5 and The Super Mario Galaxy Movie, the Los Angeles Times reported.
The scale of the launch reflects the scale of the financial risk. The Associated Press put the production budget at $250 million, with approximately $125 million spent on marketing. The Los Angeles Times reported a broader production estimate of $200 million to $250 million. That makes the film one of the most expensive R-rated releases ever mounted.
Men represented 59 percent of opening-weekend customers. The film also arrived during a stronger year for theaters, with Rentrak reporting that 2026 ticket sales were running 10.4 percent ahead of 2025.
Nolan’s name has become part of the attraction
Rentrak analyst Paul Dergarabedian described Christopher Nolan as “a director who’s a star as much as any movie star.” The BFI figures support that assessment. Audiences are not only buying tickets for the story or cast; many are choosing a specific projection format associated with the filmmaker’s work.
BFI IMAX holds a complete archive of Nolan’s IMAX 70mm filmography, now including The Odyssey. Program manager Madeleine Mullett said the cinema was proud to serve as “the home of Christopher Nolan on film.”
“The extraordinary demand for our IMAX 70mm presentation of The Odyssey, experienced as intended by the filmmakers, is ultimate proof of the appetite audiences have for cinema at its most authentic,” Mullett said.
Her comments point to the emotional appeal behind the numbers. A sold-out auditorium offers something streaming cannot easily reproduce: hundreds of people giving the same enormous image their full attention at once.
The film is also sending viewers back to Homer
The release has created interest beyond cinemas. The Associated Press reported that classicist Emily Wilson’s translation of Homer’s Odyssey entered Amazon’s top five, while other versions and adaptations also received sales boosts.
Wilson welcomed the renewed attention for the ancient poem but did not offer Nolan a free scholarly pass. She said the film “miss[ed] themes that were essential to the poem.” That criticism underscores the gap between a literary adaptation and the text that inspired it, even when both benefit from the same surge of public curiosity.
For theaters, the immediate result is less complicated. A rare projection format, a filmmaker whose name can open a movie, and an audience willing to travel have combined to create record demand. At the BFI IMAX, that demand is now measured in sold-out weeks rather than just a strong weekend.
