Christopher Nolan’s “The Odyssey” Creating Mythic Demand for Tickets
A Christopher Nolan movie is an event. This has been repeated so many times at this point, it’s become a Homeric myth all its own, only, it’s based on factual evidence we can see and report with our own eyes. This is a filmmaker whose three-hour epic about a theoretical physicist became an absolute smash hit. Sure, that physicist was the father of the nuclear bomb, but still—it’s hard to imagine many other filmmakers making a movie about Robert Oppenheimer and turning it into one-half of a full-blown phenomenon, the other dutifully shouldered by Greta Gerwig’s Barbie. Nolan’s Oppenheimer wasn’t just a box-office smash; it was also a critical hit, winning 7 Oscars, including Best Picture and Best Director.
Which brings us to Nolan’s latest, an adaptation of Homer’s epic The Odyssey. There has been a lot of digital ink spilled about the lengths Nolan went to shaping a never-before-seen cinematic event (some of that digital ink was spilled by us), filming the entire saga with IMAX cameras (and making history in the process), shooting on location across Greece, Morocco, Italy—including on “goat island,” a part of Sicily—Iceland, and Scotland.
Starring Matt Damon as the titular tortured hero of the Trojan War, Odysseus, waylaid for a decade as he attempts to get back to his wife, Penelope (Anne Hathaway), and son Telemachus (Tom Holland), but is beset by vengeful gods, monsters, and all manner of mishap on a journey that Nolan has called the story.
The cast boasts Lupita Nyong’o in dual roles, as Helen of Troy, the wife of Jon Bernthal’s Menelaus and the woman whose face launched a thousand ships, and her sister, Clytemnestra, wife of Benny Safdie’s Agamemnon. Robert Pattinson is on hand as Antinous, one of the suitors trying to steal Odysseus’s home, his wife, and, for good measure, murder his son. Zendaya plays the goddess Athena, and Charlize Theron plays the nymph Calypso.
All this is to say, there has been demand for tickets to The Odyssey for a year now. While Nolan’s epic premieres on July 17, tickets went on sale a year ago, on July 17, 2025, giving moviegoers ample time to snatch up seats. In fact, the IMAX 70mm seats that were made available then sold out almost immediately, which is practically unheard of for a film that isn’t opening for a year. Tickets for further IMAX and premium large-format screenings went on sale on Thursday, and considering Nolan is the most passionate advocate for the formats and shot his entire film using IMAX cameras, moviegoers are very, very eager to see the film the way he intended. In fact, demand has been so high for IMAX and other premium large-format screenings that AMC’s ticketing app briefly paused, and Fandango’s website experienced unusually long wait times.
Nolan and his team, including cinematographer Hoyte Van Hoytema, composer Ludwig Göransson, and production designer Ruth De Jong, have earned this kind of trust and excitement. So, too, has his producer (and partner in life) Emma Thomas, who is as integral to these films becoming jaw-dropping spectacles as anyone.
Featured image: Matt Damon (frame left, with bow) is Odysseus in THE ODYSSEY, written, produced, and directed by Christopher Nolan.
