Christopher Nolan’s “The Odyssey” Breaks New Ground: 70MM IMAX Tickets Available Now for 2026 Release
In an unprecedented move, tickets for Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey are already on sale—a year ahead of the movie’s release date.
Nolan’s upcoming adaptation of Homer’s epic isn’t due in theaters until July 17, 2026. Advanced tickets are already on sale for IMAX theaters capable of screening the film in Nolan’s preferred 70mm. This appears to be the first time in movie history that tickets for a film have been made available a year before its release. The only rub is that there aren’t that many theaters in the U.S. with 70mm capability—just a few dozen.
Yet Universal is, wisely, all-in on Nolan’s latest. “We know this film will be a once-in-a-generation cinematic masterpiece that Homer himself would be very proud of,” Jim Orr, Universal Pictures’ president of domestic theatrical distribution, said from the stage of the Colosseum at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas on Wednesday at this year’s CinemaCon.
Nolan’s adaptation of Homer’s epic is the writer/director’s star-studded follow-up to his Oscar-winning biopic Oppenheimer, which turned the life of Robert J. Oppenheimer, the father of the atomic bomb, into a riveting, three-hour storytelling masterclass. Nolan certainly seems ideally suited to take on Homer’s epic, which stars Matt Damon as the waylaid hero Odysseus, prohibited from coming home after the Trojan War by vengeful gods, goddesses, and more. Nolan’s incredible cast, which includes Charlize Theron, Lupita Nyong’o, Zendaya, Jon Bernthal, Anne Hathaway, Robert Pattinson, Mia Goth, Tom Holland, Benny Safdies, and others, will portray the tale’s motley crew of gods, goddesses, kings, peasants, debaucherous suitors, all spread out over far-flung locations and who come into contact, for good or ill, with Odysseus. Nolan embarked on his adaptation with longtime collaborators like DP Hoyte Van Hoytema, editor Jennifer Lame, and composer Ludwig Göransson, all well suited to his meticulous, singular approach.
Orr described Nolan’s film as a “mythic action epic shot across the world using brand new IMAX film technology.” Nolan, Hoytema, and his team were able to deploy brand-new IMAX cameras after Nolan asked the company if they could resolve some of the camera’s problems, which IMAX then delivered. Hoytema and his team were able to use new, lighter-weight cameras this time around.
It makes sense that Nolan and Universal are so invested in getting people into IMAX theaters—Oppenheimer earned more than $190 million of the film’s total gross on the large format screens.
Featured image: Matt Damon in Christopher Nolan’s “The Odyssey.” Courtesy Universal Pictures.
